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WONDERS OF 
BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 




BELL RINGERS AT SEVILLE. 



WONDERS OF 



BODILY STRENGTH 



AND SKILL, 



IN ALL AGES AND ALL COUNTRIES. 



TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED FROM THE FRENCH 
OF GUILLAUME DEPPING, 

BT 

CHARLES RUSSELL. 



mt% gttttwwrois gntufcnttffltf. 




NEW YORK; 
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO., 

654 BROADWAY. 

1873. 



r-M 



1343 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 026362 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK FIRST — BODILY STRENGTH, 

Chapter L — Physical Force in Ancient Times — Cele 
erated Athletes 
II. — Wrestling and Wrestlers - 
III. — Pugilism among the Ancients 
IV.— Quoit Throwing ... 
V. — Boxing in England 
M VL— English Wrestlers — T. Topham 
„ VII. — Venetian Games in the Middle Ages 

,, VIII. — SCANDERBERG AND THE TURKS 

w IX.— Some Historical Personages 



ft 

99 
99 



21 
36 

47 
54 
68 

78 

85 
90 



99 
99 



BOOK SECOND — BODILY SKILL. 

Chapter I. —Runners and Running in Antiquity and 
the Middle Ages - 
„ II. — Couriers of the Aristocracy 
„ III.— Races of Females - 
„ IV. — Leaping and Leapers u* Antiquity 
„ V. — Acrobats in Antiquity 

VL— Modern Acrobats - - - 
VII. — Rope Dancers in Ancient Times and in 

the Middle Ages ... 
"VTIL— Rope Dancers in Modern Times 
IX.— Swimming • • • • • 



107 
119 

134 
140 
149 
158 

167 
178 
190 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Chapter X. — Swimmers of America and Oceania - - 200 

„ XL — Divers .-----•• 212 

„ XII. — Greek and Syrian Divers • 220 

99 XIII.-— Skating and Skaters • • 226 

99 XIV.— Stilts -..-•••• 239 



BOOK THIRD — SKILL OF THE EYE AND HAND. 

Chapter I. — The Sling and its Use - 247 

„ II. —-The Bow in Ancient Times • • - 253 

99 III. — The Nations most celebrated as Archers 258 

M IV. — The Archer, Robin Hood .... 268 

ff V. — Other English Archers - • • - 281 

„ VI.— The Bow in the East and in America • 291 
9 , VIL — William Tell and the Legend of the 

Apple - - - 296 

9 , VIII. — The Bow and Arrow in the Nineteenth 

Century - 308 

„ IX. — The Musket and Pistol • • • -318 

9 , X. — The Javelin - • • • • • • 326 

n XL — The Boomerang •••••• 334 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



1. Athletes practising Javelin and Quoit Throwing, 

and Pugilism, to the Sound of the Flute - 

2. Victor in the Games, accompanied by Herald 

3. Hercules and Antaeus - 

4. Contest with the Ends of the Fingers 

5. Perpendicular Wrestling 

6. Wrestlers - 

7. A Pancratic Engagement 

8. Wrestlers ... 

9. Another Scene 
10. Another Scene 
xi. Another Scene 

12. Encounter between Pugilists 

13. Pugilist rubbed with Oil before a Combat 

14. Pugilist Armed with the Cestus 

15. Pugilistic Encounter 

16. A Pugilist 

17. Children Fighting 

18. Another Scene 

19. A Pugilist 

20. The Statue of the Quoit-thrower 

21. Throwing the Stone in Appenzell 

22. A " Fistic Encounter" 

23. Throwing the Hammer in Scotland- 

24. Topham's Great Feat - 

25. Venetian Games in the Middle Ages 

26. A Story from Froissart 

27. Ancient Foot Runners 3 

28. Running with Arms 

29. Torch Race - 

30. Another Scene 

31. Peich, or Runner of the Grand Turk 

32. English Running Footman 

33. Race of Women in Wurtemburg 

34. Halteres used in Jumping - • 



12 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGtt 

35. Leaping with Halteres ••-••• 144 

36. Another Scene --•--•..145 

37. Leaping over Javelins ....... 145 

3&. High Leap • • • • 145 

39. The Game of the Greased Bottle • 146 

40. High Leap -----.... 147 

41. Leaping with Pole ....... 147 

42. Ancient Tumbler ........ 150 

43. Another Scene - • - - - • - -151 

44. Female Acrobats - • - - - - - -152 

45. Another Scene • - - - - - • -153 

46. Rope Dancers • - - - • - - -168 

47. Another Scene •......- 169 

48. Another Scene - • • • • • • -171 

49. Rope Dancer at Venice • • • • • -175 

50. Bell Ringers at Seville • • • • • • 187 

51. Hero and Leander ....... 191 

52. Floridians Fighting while Swimming • • 203 

53. Skating Races in Holland .---•• 233 

54. Battle on Stilts at Namur • • - • • 241 

55. The Sling in Action -'.-•• • • 249 

56. Shooting with the Bow amongst the Ancients • 255 

57. Archer bending his Bow - - - • • -257 

58. The CabSclos of Brazil Shooting • • • 265 

59. An English Lady practising with the Bow and 

Arrow (early part of Nineteenth Century) - 286 

60. English Archer of the Middle Ages • 287 

61. French Archer of the Middle Ages • 288 

62. Fire Arrows 289 

63. Fishing with the Javelin - - ... 313 

64. Hunting by Torchlight in Kentucky • • -319 

65. Exercise with the Javelin .---•. 329 

66. Etruscan preparing to Hurl his Javelin - - 330 

67. Thessalian Horseman and Foot Soldier armed 

with Javelins 331 

68. Throwing the Javelin .- . . • -331 

69. Australian throwing the Boomerang • • • 335 
7a The Boomerang describing its Ellipse • • 336 



PREFACE. 



Before entering on the perusal of the following pages, the 
reader ought to be informed what the author has, and what 
he has not, attempted. It was not his design to write a 
scientific treatise on athletic exercises, or to furnish the 
professional or amateur gymnast with a body of historical 
facts relating to the sports now in vogue. His object was 
to cull from every source that came within his reach anec- 
dotes descriptive of the most remarkable exhibitions of 
physical strength and skill, whether in the form of indi- 
vidual feats or of national games, from the earliest ages 
down to the present time. It need scarcely be said that it 
did not fall within his province to authenticate these, had it 
been possible ; and the reader — versed in the literature of 
modern athletics, and in all facts as to times, distances, 
weights, and so forth, relating to them — who shrugs his 
shoulders at the statement of the doings of the giants of past 
days, must lay the blame elsewhere. The author has simply 
endeavoured to make a collection of "Wonders of bodily 
strength and skill" from the literature of all countries and 
all times, and if many of them may be assigned to the 



X PREFACE. 

region of the improbable, or even of the incredible, he must 
respectfully refer doubting enquirers to the original sources. 
As to the arrangement of the work, it will readily be per- 
ceived that in dealing with a mass of materials which could 
not fail to be of a somewhat heterogeneous character, the 
task was a difficult one. The author has adopted that dis- 
position which appeared to him the most natural, viz., into 
three books, devoted respectively to feats or games that 
demand chiefly physical strength ; to those which are based 
on skill more than strength; and to those which require 
skill alone. It will no doubt be found in certain cases that 
particular performances can hardly be placed exclusively 
under any one of these heads; but on the whole it will 
probably be allowed that the arrangement is the best that 
could be adopted under the circumstances. It is necessary 
to add that in this translation numerous facts have been 
added to bring certain subjects up to the present time, and 
to adapt the work more particularly to the requirements of 
the English reader. 



WONDERS OF 

BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL 
BOOK I. 

BODILY STRENGTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES — CELEBRATED 
ATHLETES. 

The " Profession " among the Greeks — The Victors in Public Gat.Y»t; 
— The Crowns — The Triumph — The Museum of Olympia — Milo 
of Croton— Polydamas of Thessalia — Theagenes — The Emperors 
Commodus and Maximus. 

In primitive societies physical force was more highly es- 
teemed, and was also of greater utility than it is in these 
days. Before men had become mixed in communities, 
and before those communities were powerful enough to 
protect all their members, it was well that each individual 
should be able to protect himself. Progress completed the 
work of nature and necessity. Everything — climate, re- 
ligion, and social institutions — combined to favour the 
development of material force. Costume, regulated by 
the condition of an ever pure atmosphere, did not hide, 
but on the contrary, showed to advantage the outlines of 



I3 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the body. Religion was nothing but the worship of ex- 
ternal nature, and adoration was paid to physical beauty 
under the names of Venus and Apollo, and physical 
strength as embodied in the myth of Hercules. Mind came 
of course to be placed above matter, but at the same time 
matter was not entirely overcome; and so in the Bible, 
Samson is the type of strength, just as Hercules is in 
heathen mythology. 

It is not then surprising that under the influence of such 




Athletes practising Javelin and Quoit throwing, and Pugilism, to the sound of the 
Flute. (From a painted vase in the Berlin Museum.) 

ideas there should have arisen among the ancients at an 
early period a special class of men, whose purpose in life 
was to develop their physical strength, and that the nations 
should have encouraged this tendency by establishing i ublic 
games devoted to all sorts of bodily exercises. In Greece, 
to go no further back in ancient annals, this art was called 
"athletics," and those who pursued it were styled " athletes," 
frorr a word which signified combat They underwent 
long and painful courses of training before appearing in 
public. They were obliged to submit to a particular regimen, 



PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 



13 



to accustom themselves to bear hunger, thirst, heat, the 
dust of the arena — in a word, all the discomforts to which 
they were to be exposed during the public games, which 
sometimes lasted from the morning to the evening. For 
this reason, Galen, the physician, showers invectives upon 
this profession, which he refuses to consider as one of the 
fine arts ; " For," says he, " athletes devote themselves to 
increasing the bulk of their flesh and the quantity of their 
thick and viscous blood — not 
to the work of simply render- 
ing the body more robust, but 
more massive, and therefore 
more likely to crush an ad- 
versary by mere weight This 
sort of training is therefore of 
no use in the acquisition of 
that vigour which may be at- 
tained by ordinary means, and 
is, besides, very dangerous." 

But the love of glory, 
which was so ardent among 
the Greeks, made the athletes 
forget the fatigues of the pa- 
laestra, and blinded them to 
the mishaps that threatened 

them when the day of contest should come. They had only 
one aim — to carry off the reward of the victor. The crown 
they won was in itself of little value, consisting of a wreath 
of parsley, wild olive, pine, oak, or laurel leaves, according 
to the locality. It is pretended that in the earliest times it 
was made of gold 3 but this opinion seems to be contradicted 
by the sentiments of the ancients, and of the people most 




Victor in the Games accompanied by 

Herald. 
(Bas-relief in die Clementine Museum.) 



14 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

interested in the question, the athletes themselves, who 
considered a reward which was simple and without any 
intrinsic value as so much more glorious and worthy of es- 
teem. The crown of leaves was only valuable from an idea 
which was associated with it, and because it gained for the 
athlete the applause of the people throughout the whole of 
Greece. Other ovations were accorded to the victor when 
he returned to his home bearing the crown and the palm — 
the emblems of his triumph. He made his solemn entrance 
into the town in a four-horse chariot, preceded by torch- 
bearers, and followed by a long procession. He did not 
enter by the common gate of the town, but by a breach 
made in the walls expressly to do him honour. By this 
ceremonial it was intended to indicate that a city that 
could count among its sons a number of valiant athletes 
had no need of walls to protect it against the besieger. 
But, was it certain that these men, in spite of all their 
strength, would have made good soldiers? "Though an 
athlete excels in wrestling," says Euripides, "is unrivalled 
in running, is skilled in throwing the quoit, or can soundlj 
buffet the jaws of an adversary, in what way can such 
accomplishments serve his country? Can he repel the 
enemy with a blow of the discus, or put him to flight by 
going through his exercises armed with a buckler? One 
does not amuse himself with these trifles when he finds 
himself within the sweep of a swordsman's arm." 

The triumphs of the athletes were sometimes very 
brilliant. For example, when Egenetus, in the ninety- 
second Olympiad, entered Agrigentum, his birthplace, he 
was attended by an escort of three hundred chariots, each 
drawn, like his own, by two white horses, and all belonging 
to the citizens of the town. But the honours accorded to vie- 



PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 1 5 

torious athletes did not end with the pageantry of a triumph. 
They enjoyed numerous privileges, which were either of an 
honorary or of a lucrative description. They had the right 
of being present at all public games; their names were 
engraven upon marble tablets, and they were freed from 
the performance of civic duties. They enjoyed the right 
of being exempt frc^n the charges which were levied upon 
the other citizens, and of being maintained to the end of 
their days at the expense of the national funds. Lastly, 
their native towns set up statues in their honour, of wood 
originally, but afterwards of bronze, each of which repre- 
sented the athlete in the attitude in which he had gained 
his victory. 

In later times these statues greatly increased in number, 
and formed an unrivalled museum at Olympia, a town of 
Elis, and also a theatre of public games, which were the 
most renowned in the whole of Greece. The museum was 
in the open air, the statues being scattered through the 
sacred grove, which in its vast circuit contained the temple 
of Jupiter, with a colossal figure of the god in gold and 
ivory by Phidias, the temple of Juno, the theatre, and a 
number of other buildings. The Greeks, in the enthusiasm 
of their nature, were so apt to render extravagant honours 
to the victors in the Olympic games, that the magistrates 
endeavoured to restrain their ardour. They watched care- 
fully that the statues should not be on a larger scale than 
life, and whatever colossal statue was erected was broken 
by them without mercy. It was feared that the people, 
carried away by their enthusiasm, would set up more statues 
to their favourities the athletes than there were figures of 
the gods and demi-gods. The statues of Olympia were 
inscribed with the names of the greatest sculptors. 



1 6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

Among the most celebrated, or, at least, among those 
that transmit to posterity traditions of the most extraor* 
dinary feats, is that of Milo of Croton, the work of 
Damoas, a countryman of the great athlete. One proof 
that Milo did not bear away the palm without deserving 
it, is that he himself carried the statue which commemo- 
rated his distinction upon his shoulders, and set it up in 
its place. And it was not only once that he was crowned, 
for six times did he win the palm at the Olympic games, 
and on the first of these occasions he was still very young. 
He was equally successful in the Pythian encounters. The 
people of Croton, where he was born (a town on the eastern 
coast of Calabria), were celebrated for their physical prowess. 
Milo did not belie the renown of his townsmen, and loved 
to give proofs of his prodigious strength. It was he who 
was said to have ran a mile with a four-year old ox upon 
his shoulders, afterwards killed the animal with a blow of 
his fist, and ate the carcase every inch in one day. It was 
he also who placed himself upright upon a quoit, which 
had been oiled to render it more slippery, and there stood 
so firmly that no shock could move him. No human power 
could open his fingers, when, leaning his elbow upon his 
side, he held out his hand closed except the thumb, which 
was left free. Sometimes in the same hand he would hold a 
pomegranate, and without crushing it grasp it with sufficient 
strength to baffle all attempts to force it from him. A woman 
whom he loved alone could make him slacken his grasp, 
and for this reason ^Elian remarked that Milo's strength was 
only material, and did not render him proof against human 
weaknesses. But, did not Hercules himself, Milo's hero 
and model, lie at Omphale's feet and spin yarn with that 
lady's distaff? Not only did Milo take Hercules for hia 



PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 1 7 

great example, but he imitated his personal appearance, for 
on one occasion he marched against an army of Sybarites 
at the head of his countrymen, clothed in a lion's hide, and 
brandishing a club. 

So great was his strength that he would sometimes 
bind a cord round his head, and, retaining his breath, 
break it by the swelling and pressure of the veins. On 
one occasion, when he happened to be in a house with 
a number of the disciples of Pythagoras, the ceiling threa- 
tened to fall in; but the athlete held up the column on 
which the roof rested, and saved the lives of the philoso- 
phers. It is not astonishing, then, that such a • vigorous 
athlete did not find in the public games many antagonists 
desirous of measuring themselves with him, and that on 
one occasion he was declared the victor without a combat. 
But, at the moment when he was about to seize the crown, 
which the president of the games presented to him, his 
foot slipped and he fell. Some spectators noting this cried 
out that it was not right to crown him who had not had an 
adversary, and especially after a fall. " I have stumbled, 
it is true," answered Milo, " but to lose the prize I should 
have been knocked down." 

Nevertheless, according to ^Elian, Milo found a con- 
queror in the person of a mountaineer named Titormus, 
whom he encountered on the banks of the Evenus (mo- 
dern Fidari), a river of ^Etolia. This was, without doubt, 
at the time when his strength was beginning to fail, but that 
it was so he would not allow himself to believe, and his 
obstinacy proved fatal to him. Having found an oak upon 
the road, in the bark of which some one had sunk a num- 
ber of coins, Milo attempted to enlarge the opening ; but 
the strength of his youth had declined, and he failed 

B 



1 8 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

The segments closing, fastened his hands in the rift, and 
held the athlete prisoner; in this position he was assailed, 
and rent to pieces by wild beasts. At an ordinary meal 
Milo of Croton is said to have consumed twenty pounds of 
meat, as much bread, and fifteen pints of wine. 

The feats of Polydamas of Thessalia, an athlete of pn> 
digious strength and of colossal height, were not less extra- 
ordinary, and some incredible stories are told of him. It 
is said that, alone and without arms, he, like another Her- 
cules, killed an enormous and enraged lion. When he held 
a chariot back with his one hand, the most powerful horses 
could not pull it from his grasp. One day he seized a bull 
by one of its hind feet, and the animal was able to escape only 
by leaving the hoof in the hands of the athlete. The King 
of Persia, Darius I., having heard the strange reports of his 
surprising strength, wished to see him, and opposed to him 
three of his guards, from the troop called the Immortals, 
who were considered the most skilled and the strongest of 
his army. Polydamas encountered the three, and killed 
them all. Like Milo, he perished through his own con- 
fidence in his muscular powers. While in a cavern with a 
number of companions, seeking shelter from the heat, all at 
once the arch opened up on several sides. The friends 
of Polydamas sought safety in flight ; but he, without any 
fear, attempted with his hands to bear up the great mass of 
earth that fell in upon him, and was buried under it. 

These athletes were so accustomed to victory that they 
were not in the habit of even counting their well-won 
wreaths. Such, for instance, was Chilo, of Patrae, in 
Achaia, in whose honour his countrymen raised a tomb, 
whose statue was carved by the celebrated Lysippus, and 
who flourished at Olympia ir f he time of Pausanias. Such 



PHYSICAL FORCE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 1 9 

especially was Theagenes of Thasos (an island in the 
^Egean sea off the coast of Thrace), whose prize wreaths 
amounted in number — not to 10,000, as an oracle an- 
nounced after his death — but to 1,200 or 1,400, according 
to Pausanias and Plutarch. A singular story is told of this 
athlete. After his death one of his rivals went every night 
— no doubt to gratify his hatred and show his contempt — 
and lashed the statue, which, accidentally falling, crushed 
the poor wretch to death under its mass. His son preferred 
a charge against the effigy, and the trial resulted in its being 
condemned by the Thasians to be thrown into the sea. 
But scarcely had this judgment been carried out than the 
inhabitants of Thasos were visited by a dreadful famine, and 
the Delphic oracle, on being consulted, gave, as usual, an 
answer with a double meaning, " The recall of the exiles will 
alone end your misfortunes." Acting on the letter and not 
the spirit of the suggestion, they experienced no alleviation 
of their distress, and the oracle, when again consulted, re- 
minded them that they had not recalled Theagenes. But 
how was this to be done ? Fortunately, some fishermen 
were able to get the statue into their nets, and brought it to 
land. It was conveyed with great pomp and ceremony to 
the spot where it formerly stood, divine honours were paid 
to it ; and eventually Greeks and barbarians came to adore 
this image, which was reputed to have miraculous power, 
and employed it for cures for certain diseases. 

The Roman emperor Caius Julius Verus Maximinus, 
by blood a Goth, and at one time a herdsman, deserves 
notice in any record of the great athletes of antiquity. 
During the games superintended by Septimius Severus, he 
entered the lists against the most formidable of his day, and 
knocked down six men without drawing breath. Maxi- 

b 2 



20 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

min, who was upwards of e:ght feet in height, and who 
received the names of Hercules, and Milo of Croton, could 
squeeze to powder the hardest stone with his fingers, split 
up young trees with his hands, break the jaw or the leg of a 
horse with a kick. Such was his development that his 
wife's bracelet served him for a ring. He adopted a vege- 
table dietary, but, according to one authority, would some- 
times, to recompense himself for his abstinence, eat forty 
and even sixty pounds of meat, and drink an amphora of 
wine in one day. The emperor Commodus had before 
this assumed by decree the name of Hercules, son of 
Jupiter, instead of that of son of Marcus Aurelius, and 
appeared in public covered with a lion's hide and bearing a 
club in his hand. He afterwards took it into his head to 
abandon his chosen name, and adopt that of a famous 
gladiator who had just died. His pleasure then was to 
descend into the arena, and, laying aside the purple, which 
he dishonoured by his profligacy and extravagance, to fight 
naked before the people. His exploits in the ring are, 
however, not credible ; and though the pedestal of his statue 
bore the inscription, " Commodus, conqueror of a thousand 
gladiators," it is to be feared that they were willing victims. 
Still, if the strength of the emperor was not always as great 
as it was made to appear, his agility, on the other hand, was 
incontestable, as we shall have occasion to show further on. 



CHAPTER It 

WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 

The Origin of Wrestling — Hercules and Antaeus, Theseus and Cer- 
cyon — Two kinds of Wrestling, the Perpendicular and Hori- 
zontal — Wrestling with the Finger Ends — Homer's Description 
— At what time the Athletes Fought entirely Naked — The Pan- 
crace — Anointing and Rubbing — The Group of Wrestlers — 
Advantages of Wrestling among the Ancients — The Swiss 
Mountaineers. 

All the athletes to whom we have referred may be gene- 
rally described as wrestlers, and their art is perhaps the 
most ancient of all gymnastic exercises. It is not to be 
supposed that those who took part in struggles of this 
nature were actuated by enmity or a desire for ven- 
geance. On the contrary, for many ages wrestling was 
only a means of testing the strength of members of the 
same race, tribe, or family. Two brothers would seize each 
other round the body, and exert all their strength to make 
each other succumb, but their doing so was considered only 
a pastime and a preparation for the serious combats of the 
arena. These encounters, however, body to body, were 
marked by all the rudeness of primitive times, and brute 
force decided the victory. One athlete overthrew the other 
by his mere weight and mass, crushing him as they crush 
grain in the mill, and only relaxed his hold when his ad- 
versary owned himself vanquished. In the heroic ages 
every man's energies were directed to rendering his body as 
powerful as possible, either by continual exercise, or by a 



22 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



strengthening regimen, in order to bring into play in the 
combats all the force of his frame and muscles. That 
some perverted the great physical powers which nature had 
bestowed upon them, and which they had developed by 
culture, to the purpose of tyrannising over and making 
profit out of their fellow-creatures is not surprising. The 
classic mythology teems with examples. Among the most 
dreaded of such monsters were Antaeus and Cercyon, whom 
Theseus and Hercules were obliged to 
destroy, and to whom it is said we owe 
the invention of wrestling. They com- 
pelled travellers to try their strength 
with them, and after easy victories, killed 
the victims when they had thrown them 
to the ground. Antaeus, the Lybian 
giant, did not, according to the myth, 
run any great personal danger, for he 
had, so to speak, insured his life, and 
in his encounters a fall was not a defeat, 
as it was for ordinary wrestlers, but 
rather gave him renewed strength. He 
was, the ancients said, the son of Terra, the earth, and each 
time he fell and touched his mother he received fresh 
powers. After Hercufes had three times in vain dragged 
him down in his embrace, he raised him with his mus- 
cular arm, and strangled him without suffering him to touch 
the reviving earth. Theseus had to overcome some ob- 
stacles of the same nature in his combat with Cercyon of 
Attica, who used to catch wayfarers, and, after fixing them 
to the branches of trees, break their limbs as on a rack. 
The brigands of our own time, in Calabria and elsewhere, 
are not inexperienced in the refinements of cruelty, but 




Hercules and Antaeus 

(From a carving in 
the Museum of Chiusi.) 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 23 

modern governments are armed with very effectual means 
of putting a stop to them. Theseus, however, had not at 
his disposal the resources of civilisation, and it was purely 
out of good will, and at great personal peril, that he as- 
sumed in his own person the functions which in our days 
devolve on the police. If he managed to get through a 
wrestling bout when the odds were against him not only 
victoriously but with glory, it was because he had dis- 
covered the weak points of all the wrestlers who had pre- 
ceded him. They possessed brute misdirected strength, 
which did not suffice when opposed by skill, which strips 
mere strength of its value ; which reflects, judges, and 
contrives ; which discovers the weak points of others, but 
conceals itself; which is at once a shield to defend and a 
spear to attack. Theseus was the first to perceive its im- 
portance in wrestling, and to introduce it in practice ; and 
the result was that what had formerly been only an exer- 
cise without method or rules, now became an art pursued 
in the gymnasium. 

Wrestling held a place in the Olympic games from 
remote times, and the hero Hercules himself carried off 
the prize for physical strength. When troubles began to 
come upon Greece the games fell into desuetude ; but after 
they were re-established, at the instigation of the oracle at 
Delphos, wrestling was again recognised as an institution in 
the eighteenth Olympiad, and the Lacedaemonian Eurybates 
had the honour of being the first conqueror. 

The Greeks recognised two modes of wrestling — one 
called the perpendicular, in which the combatants were 
allowed to rise after they had been overthrown ; the other, 
in which the wrestler did not require to fear a fall, was 
v tyled the horizontal mode. It was also called the rotatory, 



24 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



because in their evolutions and intertwinings the wrestlers* 
now uppermost now undermost, rolled upon the tan from 
one side of the arena to the other. Some authors assert 
that there was a third mode — aci'ocheirismos — which con- 
sisted in seizing the ends of the fingers of an adversary, 
without touching any other part of his body. The name 




Contest with the Ends of the Fingers. (From a painted vase in the Hamilton 
collection.) 

comes from the Greek a/cpos, extreme, %dp, the hand. But 
Kraus, whose work on the gymnastics of the Greeks is an 
authority, shows that acrocheirisim was only the prelude to 
the wrestle properly so called, and not an exercise of itself. 
Yet this preliminary struggle seems to have been of some 
importance, since certain athletes made it their speciality, 
and many excelled in it. To this class belonged Sostratus 
of Sicyon, as well as Leontis of Messina, who, according to 
Panamas, never fatigued himself by fighting body to body, 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 2$ 

but contented himself by squeezing and twisting the fingers 
of his enemy with such vigour as to oblige him to own 
himself defeated. Thus, as the wrestling match was often 
terminated with the preliminary play of hands, it is not 
surprising that modern critics have considered this a special 
exercise. 




Perpendicular Wrestling. (Monument, dall' Institutio, i., 22, 8 b.) 

In the Homeric times neither this preliminary play 
nor the cunning and much-cultivated art of the horizontal 
wrestle was known, and upright wrestling was the only form 
practised. When Ajax, the son of Telamon, opposed him- 
self to the wise Ulysses, during the games with which the 
funeral of Patroclus was celebrated, the perpendicular mode 
was the only one in use. " The heroes strip, they clasp each 
other by the back, and they struggle ; they press each other 
tightly in their nervous arms. One would call them two 
beams which a skilled carpenter unites at the summit of a 
building, in order that they shall resist the strength of the 
wind. Their backs resound under the frequent blows given 
by their sinewy arms, the perspiration rolls down their limbs 



26 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

upon their sides, and their shoulders rise, swelling red with 
blood. Ulysses cannot repel Ajax, nor Ajax overthrow 
Ulysses. Fearing lest this indecisive struggle would make 
the Greeks impatient, Ajax cries, ' Son of Laertes, lift me 
or let thyself be lifted by me, and let Jupiter decide the 
rest.' With these words he lifts Ulysses, who having now 
recourse to his extraordinary skill, kicks Ajax on the ham- 
string, and makes him bend the knee. Ajax falls upon 
his back, dragging with him his adversary. Ulysses now 
attempts to lift Ajax, but exhausts himself in vain attempts, 
and it is with difficulty he raises him from the earth. They 
fall for the second time, and roll from the one side to the 
other, covered with dust. They rise — they are about to 
recommence for the third fall, when Achilles intervenes, and 
drawing down their arms, ' It is enough ! ' he cries, ' do not 
waste your strength in these dangerous combats. Both are 
worthy of victory/ and he generously awards them equal 
prizes." 

We observe, in the first place, from this description, that 
the wrestlers stripped off their clothes. Thus in the time of 
Homer wrestlers were not naked, at least around the loins, 
which they girded with a cincture, a scarf, or an apron. 
But, from the following, we perceive that this was a useless 
constraint, and was the occasion of a serious accident, of 
which the athlete Orsippus was the victim. While engaged 
in a contest his belt slipped down to his heels, and his feet 
were caught by it. The retention of this remnant of cloth- 
ing was done away with at the beginning of the fifteenth 
Olympiad, at the risk of offending the modesty of the spec- 
tators. It must be remarked that men only were ad* 
mitted to the Olympic games, and women prohibited by 
a very severe law; but such is the attraction they pos- 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 2J 

sessed for the sex that is rather noted for curiosity, that women 
frequently attempted to pass into the games, habited like men, 
daring the punishment which threatened them, criminals oi 
this sort being thrown from the summit of a cliff. 

Homer's wrestlers, after preparation, began the struggle, 
pushing and pressing against each other with all their 
strength ; but it is to be observed that they do not strike. 
The blows with the fists were reserved for another kind of 
exercise — for pugilism, which will be considered in the next 
chapter. In wrestling, pro- 
perly so called, there was an 
absolute prohibition against 
striking an adversary, and the 
rule was not peculiar to the 
Homeric age, but was in 
vogue during the centuries 
that followed. It applied to 
both kinds of wrestling — the 

_ j* i \ • -\ .i Wrestlers. (From a painting on a jar in 

perpendicular, which was the the collec tion of pLe de Canine.) 
most ancient, and alone was 

in use at the time of Homer ; and the horizontal, in which 
both adversaries rolled upon the sand. 

It maybe objected that it is useless to attempt to regulate 
the attitudes of two combatants carried away by the ardour 
of the struggle. How is it possible to prevent two men, of 
whom the one is writhing in the clasp of the other, from 
threatening each other with the fist, and passing from the 
threat to the act ? The wrestler, in spite of himself, became 
a pugilist, and the restrictions that were imposed on him 
went for nothing. This fact being well established, neces- 
sitated, without doubt, the invention of that other exercise 
which has been called the j>ankration. Unknown at the time 




28 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

of Homer, the pancrace was only introduced at the public 
games during the thirty-third Olympiad. It was a most 
violent athletic exercise, which combined wrestling and 
pugilism, and in which it was permitted not only to push 
and drive an adversary with all one's force, but also to 
strike him with the closed fist. 

Homer is so exact and conscientious a historian that 




A Pancratic Engagement (Bas-relief in the Clementine Museum.) 

it is necessary to consider both what he says and what 
he omits to say. The personages whom he brings under 
our notice in the passage we have already quoted, are not 
said to have rubbed their bodies with oil before coming to 
the combat Therefore, it is to be presumed that this prac- 
tice did not up to his time form one of the usages of the 
ancient wrestlers. And yet it is indispensable for imparting 
suppleness and elasticity to the muscles. The custom, in- 
troduced at a Lter period, became general, and no wrestler 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 2Q 

neglected it, either in the gymnasium or in the public games. 
They did not content themselves with rubbing their bodies 
with oil, but they soaked them in mud. How great 
was the astonishment of the Scythian, Anacharsis, whom 
Lucian the satirist introduced into the palaestra of the 
Athenians ! He there saw beings with two legs like himself 
"who rolled in the mud, and wallowed there like hogs." 
Further on, in the uncovered part of the court, he perceived 
others in a ditch full of sand, for the bodies of the wrestlers, 
covered with an oily coat, would have slipped like those 
of eels, without offering any hold. The dust in which they 
rolled themselves mixing with the oil and the sweat formed 
moreover a kind of skin which protected the combatant from 
the effects of cold. As Lucian informs us, the wrestlers 
powdered and oiled each other, and when the combat was 
over they cleaned the dirt off each other's bodies, using for 
this purpose a strigilis, a sort of curry-comb, with which all 
the baths and gymnasiums were amply provided. 

Greek art has transmitted to us some very curious and 
important works upon the subject under consideration — 
the wrestlers in action. The most celebrated group is that 
in the gallery at Florence. Who does not know it ? What 
art student has not copied it at least once in his life ? There 
is not a school of design, or a painter's or a sculptor's studio, 
but possesses a cast of it. Nevertheless, the two figures do 
not represent professional wrestlers. It is easy to discover 
this from the slimness and delicacy of their bodies ; from 
their features, which bear no trace of fatigue or contortion ; 
from their nervous frames, which show nothing of the ab- 
normally developed muscles of the regular wrestler; and 
especially from their eyes, whose delicate contours are not 
cut or deformed by blows, as is always the case among 



30 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

wrestlers and pancracists. With his usual sagacity, Winckel- 
maun discovered the historic meaning of this group, that the 
figures are those of the children of Niobe, who were the vic- 
tims of the anger of Apollo and Diana, and who at the 
moment when the god was preparing to strike them down 
with his arrows, entered on different athletic exercises, 
those of maturer ages engaging in horse-racing, those of 
tenderer years commencing to wrestle. This group, which is 
so remarkable for the fidelity to nature displayed in its 
anatomy, and which, in spite of the entwining of the limbs, 
presents nothing painful to the eye, but is on the contrary 
full of grace, harmony, and repose, was dug up from the 
same place as the other statues of the Niobeides. What 
still more enhances the value of the work in the eyes of artists 
is the fact that the hands, which in most ancient remains 
are wanting, are here entire. 

All the statues of wrestlers that have come down to us 
have not this aesthetic value, but they serve as a means of 
making us comprehend the descriptions of the poets ; and 
the historical poets, in particular, have written at great 
length upon a subject which provided them with striking 
images. In the "Iliad" we have the contest already 
described ; in the " ^Eneid " that between Dares and 
Entellus ; in the " Metamorphoses " of Ovid that between 
Hercules and Archelaus ; in the " Pharsalia " of Lucan that 
between Hercules and Antaeus ; in the " Thebais " of Statius 
that between Tydeus and Agyleus ; finally, in the " History 
of Ethiopia" of Heliodorus, that between Theagenes and 
the ferocious African. We can see in these descriptions how 
the wrestlers displayed at once energy, cunning, and skill in 
overcoming their adversaries, each striving to overthrow the 
other — the one object to be achieved in upright wrestling. 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 31 

In order to succeed in doing so, the wrestler grasped his 
opponent by the arms, dragged him forward, drove him back, 
seized him by the throat, twisted his neck till he cried out, 
entwined his own limbs with those of his antagonist, shook 
him with all his might, endeavoured to lift him in the air, or 
hurl him upon his side. Some commenced with the pre- 
liminary sparring with the hands, of which we have spoken, 




Wrestlers. (From an Etruscan tomb at ChiusL) 

while others, lowering their heads, threw themselves forward, 
butting like rams. This was not all. " Observe," says Lucian, 
" how one lifts his adversary by the legs, as they do in the 
gymnasiums, throws him to the earth, casts himself upon 
him, prevents him from rising, and drives him into the 
ground ; squeezes his stomach with his legs, sinks his thumbs 
into his gullet, and soon ohokes the poor wretch, who, 
striking his conqueror on the shoulder, begs him, with 
earnest entreaty, not to strangle him." The established 



32 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

rules of the combat actually permitted the athlete to rip up 
the stomach of his adversary, and to tuck his elbow under 
his chin so as to deprive him totally of the power of respira- 
tion. In spite of the terrible shocks received in these con- 
flicts, the physicians of antiquity recommend them as 
favourable to health, asserting that " horizontal " wrestling 
acted beneficially upon the loins and the lower extremities, 
while upright wrestling affected in a similar manner the 




- Another Scene. (From an Etruscan tomb at Chiusi.) 

tipper parts of the body. Caelius Aurelianus extolled the 
exercise, as tending to prevent obesity. 

This much is certain, that, as a rule, wrestling as prac- 
tised among the Greeks assisted in developing the muscles 
and the respiratory organs, facilitated the circulation of the 
blood, and helped to expel noxious secretions, which are 
discharged through the pores. So thoroughly were the 
Greeks convinced of the benefits of these sports, that they 
accorded the privilege of combating with their equals at 
the Olympic games even to young children. In wrestling, 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 33 

a value was also assigned to the elegance and grace of the 
various attitudes of the body. 

"Forced to appear without clothes before a vast 
assembly," says Solon to Anacharsis, in Lucian's dialogue, 
" they will take care that their attitudes are beautiful, that 
they may not have to blush for their nudity, and that 
they may render themselves in all things worthy of victory." 

The wrestling of the Swiss mountaineers presents to the 
artist of the present day not less interesting subjects of 




Another Scene. (From a painted vase found at Vulci.) 

study. To the tourist the exercise is nothing more than 
an object of curiosity ; but let him take care to act the 
modest part of a spectator, and not join in their rough 
sport, as the people of the country will certainly invite him 
to do. Were he the most renowned gymnast in Germany, 
he would infallibly come off second best in the encounter. 

I would not assert that the Swiss in their wrestling call 
to mind the athletes of the Olympic games, but in many 
respects they imitate them. They sometimes begin the 
contest in the fashion of the ancient wrestlers, by only 
touching the upper parts of each other's bodies, and striking 

c 



34 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

head against head. As a rule, before coming to close quar- 
ters, they shake hands to show that they bear no malice, 
and then each places one hand on his opponent's belt 
and the other on his shoulder. This is the signal for the 
commencement of the struggle, the object of which is to 



Another Scene. (From an antique bronze.) 

throw one's adversary upon his back, and victory is only 
gained when this has been achieved. Soon all the museles 
are strained, all the veins swollen, the eyes seem about to 
start from their sockets, and the panting nostrils are wide 
open. Each athlete endeavours to pass his leg under that 
of the other in order to throw him over it, and give him the 
fall; but this manoeuvre is met by one not less ingenious, 



WRESTLING AND WRESTLERS. 35 

for the other slides his left hand under the right thigh of his 
opponent and brings it in front of his left thigh. Taking 
him thus by the legs he lifts him in the air with all the 
strength of his wrists, and throws him upon his back, per- 
haps even on his head. At other times it is the blow of 
heel against heel that determines the fall. 

The pancrace — that is to say, wrestling accompanied 
with fighting — does not appear to form part of these 
Helvetic games. Among the Greeks it was simply wrestling 
developed to its utmost perfection, and carried out in the 
fiercest and most uncompromising manner. The athletes 
who devoted themselves to it became the most renowned 
for strength, as may be readily believed, seeing that in this 
kind of combat all the members — the hands, feet, arms, 
thighs, shoulders, neck, elbows, and knees — had to play 
their part. The pancrace was the combination of wrestling 
with pugilism. We have described the former, it now 
remains to speak of the latter. 



c »* 



CHAPTER III. 

PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 

Love of the Greeks for Pugilism, in spite of their delicacy — Whence 
came the best Pugilists — -Diagoras and his Three Sons — The use of 
the Cestus — The Battle between Kreugas and Damoxene — Ferocity 
of an Athlete— Melancomas and his Artistic Style — Glaucus— 
Children and Pugilism— Epigrams in the Anthology. 

The practice of pugilism is of the highest antiquity, for long 
before the invention of offensive and defensive weapons, 
men were accustomed to make use of that arm which was 
at once effective and easily used. How was it that the 
Greeks, the lovers of the arts — the Greeks, so delicate in 
their other tastes, came to admire and cherish a sport of 
which rude brute strength constitutes the foundation ? The 
reason simply is that the Greeks, in spite of the refinement 
of their civilisation, continued to be the children and fol- 
lowers of nature, and made pugilism a science which they 
taught in common with philosophy and the fine arts. The 
young men were instructed and trained by skilful masters 
thoroughly acquainted with all the tricks and resources of 
this brutal art. At public amusements, at the funerals of 
heroes, and even at religious ceremonies, contests of this 
kind took place. In the "Iliad," for example, pugilistic 
encounters figure among a number of funeral games given 
in honour of Patroclus ; and we read in the " Odyssey " that 
it was practised by the Phaeacians at the court of Alcinous. 
The heroes of antiquity took great pride in the massive 



PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 37 

power of their fists. Amongst those who excelled in this 
exercise we may mention, according to Homer, Amycus, 
king of the Bebrycians, who would allow strangers to travel 
through his kingdom only on condition that they took part 
in an encounter with him, and who, on these occasions, was 
invariably the victor, and Epeus, who was the builder of the 
famous wooden horse that brought about the destruction 
of Troy, and boasted that he had never met his equal in 
pugilism. It is to th^se two heroes that we owe the 




Encounter between Pugilists. (From a Greek vase.) 

introduction of the "noble art of self-defence" among 
the athletic sports. It did not, however, at first attract 
much attention, for it was only admitted as a public 
exhibition at the celebration of the games of Elis, which 
took place in the twenty-third Olympiad, Onomastos, of 
Smyrna, being the first who publicly bore away the prize. 

The most renowned pugilists came from Rhodes, ^Egina, 
Arcadia, and Elis. Diagoras, a Rhodian, whose praises 
are sung by Pindar, when an old man, and after having in 
his time won many wreaths, led his two sons to the Olympic 



38 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILI* 

games. The young men having been proclaimed the con* 
querors, they, taking their father upon their shoulders, bore 
him through the great assembly, amidst the most enthusias- 
tic applause. "You may die now, Diagoras," cried a 
Lacedaemonian; "you will be remembered on earth, though 
you go to heaven f meaning by this that the old man had 
achieved the greatest fame which a human being could 




Pugilist rubbed with oil before a Combat. (From a bronze in the Academy 
of St Luc.) 

wish. And Diagoras seemed to be of the same opinion ; for, 
unable to bear up against the excitement of the occasion, 
he died under the eyes of the assembled Greeks, in the 
arms of the two sons whose victory he had been spared to 
witness. He did not live to enjoy the triumph of the third 
of his offspring, who some time afterwards won a name 
even more famous than his own. 

If these encounters excited among the Greeks such 
interest, it is difficult to see how, as certain authors assert, 



PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 



39 



the exercise was contemned by them, and practised almost 
exclusively by the lower classes. It is shocking to think of 
this passion, this enthusiasm of the Greeks for so rude a 
sport ; but it is a fact which history, while it deplores it, is 
bound to record. Still, this exhibition of material strength 
in its coarsest and most brutal form, must have ceased 
to exist among the ancients, 
in spite of their partiality for 
it, had not certain athletes 
found means to raise it to the 
category of the arts. As a 
general rule, the earlier pugi- 
lists rushed against each other 
with closed fists, showering 
their blows, which were ren- 
dered terrific by the leather 
thongs which were wound 
around the hand and the 
fore-part of the arm, and so 
formed the gauntlet, called 
the cestus. The blows thus 
delivered were terrible. " One 
hears the jaws cracking under 
the strokes," says Homer, in describing the contest between 
Epeus and Euryalus ; " the divine Epeus ' landing ' upon 
his adversary, gives him a buffet on the cheek that makes 
him drop. He falls, his friends surrounding him, carry 
him away insensible, his legs hanging powerless, his head 
drooping on his shoulder, and dark blood flowing from his 
mouth." These were the results of ordinary pugilism, when 
the athlete directed his efforts to the disfiguration of the 
visage, dashed back his adversary's head to make him 




Pugilist armed with the Cestus. 
(After a statue in the Louvre.) 



40 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



giddy, and finally delivered the coup de grdce by striking 
him with the two cesti at the same time. 

Combats of this kind occasionally were of a specially 
ferocious character; for example, the fight between Da- 
moxene and Kreugas, at the Nemean games. Kreugas was 
an athlete originally from Epidamnus (Durazzo, in Albania), 
Damoxene, his antagonist, was from Syracuse. As the terrible 
struggle in which they were engaged threatened to be pro- 




Pugilistic Encounter. (After a painted vase in the Blacas Museum.) 



longed into the night, both agreed that they should in turn 
cease parrying the blows which should be delivered, and 
that while one struck the other should remain motionless. 
Kreugas had the first turn, and his blow fell like that of a 
heavy hammer upon his opponent's head, which, however, 
withstood the onslaught. Damoxene, having signed to his 
opponent to hold his arm above his head, which was done, 
then drove his hand — of which the nails were long and 
pointed, and which was laced with leather thongs, fixed at 
the palm, so as to leave the extremities of the fingers free, 
and so very different from the cestus, which had not yet been 
invented — against the pit of Kreugas's stomach, sunk it into 



PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 41 

the entrails, pulled them forth, and scattered them upon 
the arena, the poor wretch, of course, dying on the spot. 
The magistrates who presided at the games banished Da~ 
moxene, because it was contrary to the practice of the sport 
to strike a blow with the intention of causing death, and 




A Pugilist. (From an ancient statna) 

the crown was awarded to the dead athlete, to whom also 
a statue was erected. 

Certain pugilists regarded " the profession " from quite 
another point of view, for they made it their rule never to 
deliver knock-down blows ; they even abstained altogether 
from striking, and won their battles without once hitting 
their adversaries. They confined their attention to one 
thing, to fatigue their antagonists and exhaust their patience 
without letting them once get at them. In this difficult 



42 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILI* 

kind of fist-fencing no one excelled Melancomas, who lived 
under the emperor Titus, and was held by him in high 
esteem. His talents must have been much admired and 
estimated very highly, for several great orators, among 
others Dion Chrysostom, have condescended to praise 
him. Melancomas held out for whole hours, his arms 
extended in the face of his enemy, who sought in vain to 
reach him, and bruised himself in vain efforts to break 
through those two muscular bars, as resistant as steel. It is 
said that he could remain for two consecutive days in this 
fatiguing position, while others were utterly exhausted. By 
this manoeuvre he deprived his adversaries of every chance, 
and forced them, exhausted with the long struggle, to leave 
him with the victory, for which they would often have pre- 
ferred paying with their blood. 

Melancomas left the arena without having given or 
received a single blow, a feat which may be regarded as 
the perfection of the art of self-defence. This manner of 
combating was much more honourable and more glorious 
than the other, for he gained his victory not by brute force, 
but by indomitable courage, perseverance, energy, and the 
physical strength which he developed and preserved by 
continual practice and habits of strict temperance. He 
regarded with pity those of his brethren who, after heavy 
smashing upon each other's faces, left the arena mutilated 
and disfigured, and considered this great waste of strength 
an actual proof of weakness. He contended that athletes, 
in hastening by violence to gain the victory, only showed 
that they were incapable of bearing up for a sufficiently 
long time against the inevitable fatigues of the arena. 

Before this great athlete succumbed to his last antago- 
nist, others among the Greeks had adopted his tactics, 



PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 43 

among them Glaucus, who excelled in many kinds of phy* 
sical exercises. His statue, which Pausanias saw at Olympus, 
represented him in the favourite attitude of Melancomas, 
with his arms held rigid before him, to keep his adversary at 
a distance, and render him powerless to do mischief. It is 
believed, however, that Glaucus also practised the ordinary 
method with great swiftness and facility, his fist leaving 
frightful traces wherever it struck. It was he, it is said, 
whose father saw him using his hand as a hammer to drive 
in the share of his plough, which had become detached — 
for he had not been trained originally as an athlete, but as a 
simple husbandman. Guessing at his son's vigour of arm 
by the single proof of it which he had witnessed, the father 
took him to the Olympic games, where Glaucus fought with 
the cestus. Assailed by an adversary more adroit and more 
highly trained than himself, he was about to succumb, when 
his father cried out, " Strike, my son, as you did on the 
plough," and, re-animated by these words, the pugilist re- 
doubled his efforts, and won the battle. 

Children, even, practised the style for which Glaucus 
was distinguished. Among others ip mentioned a certain 
Hippomaches, who in his boyish encounters, defeated in 
succession three opponents, and left the field without a blow 
or a cut. In fact the real triumph came to be to finish 
these rude matches safe and sound, the face unmarked, the 
body without a bruise. But this rarely happened, the com- 
batants as a rule retiring from the arena dreadfully disfigured 
and sometimes disabled for life. 

The pitiful state in which they were often left would 
have moved hearts of stone ; but the poets, the men who 
as a rule grow tender frequently on very slight occasion, 
were not touched, especially the satiric poets, for the Greek 



44 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



anthology abounds in epigrams upon this favourite subject 
In reproducing them we are moved as much by the desire 




Children Fighting. (From a carving in the Florence Museum.) 

to excite pity for the vanquished as to record the featt of 
strength performed by the conquerors. 




Another Scene. (From the same.) 



m The conqueror at the Olympic games whom you see in 
that dilapidated state had yesterday a nose, a chin, nostrils, 



PUGILISM AMONG THE ANCIENTS. 



45 



ears, and eyelids. But in the exercise of pugilism he has 
lost all those embellishments, and even his inheritance. He 
cannot have a part of his patrimony, for he has been con- 
fronted with his portrait, which his brother produced in the 
court of justice, and it has been decided that he is not the 
same individual. There is not the 
slightest resemblance between the 
portrait and him." 

" Ulysses, on his return to his 
native country, after twenty years 
of absence, was recognised by his 
dog Argos ; but thou, Stratophon, 
after four hours of pugilism, hast 
become unrecognisable, not only 
by the dogs, but by the whole 
town ; and if you wish to look at 
yourself in the mirror you will cry 
out, ' I am not Stratophon/ and 
you will take your oath on it." 

" Apollophanes, thy head has 
become like a sieve, or like the 
edges of a book eaten by worms. 
One would take the cuts which 
the cestus has made in it for the notes in a piece of Lydian 
or Phrygian music. Nevertheless you can fight again with- 
out fear of being further disfigured. There is no room left 
on your head to receive other wounds." 

" Andreolus ! I have fought valiantly as a pugilist in 
all the games of Greece. At Pisa I lost an ear, at Plateum 
an eye, at Delphos they carried me off insensible. But m> 
father, Damoteles, together with my countrymen, were pre- 
pared to carry me from the arena either dead or wounded." 




A Pugilist 
(From an ancient statue.) 



46 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

" Aulus, the pugilist, consecrated to the god of Pisa all 
the bones of his skull collected one by one. Should he 
return alive from the Nemean games, O valiant Jupiter ! he 
will consecrate the vertebrae of his neck — they will be all 
that is left to him," 



CHAPTER IV. 

QUOIT THROWING. 

Quoit throwing in Ancient Times not a Game of Skill — Dangers of the 
Amusement — The Quoit in Heroic Times — Attitudes of the Player 
—The Statue of Myron — The Swiss Game. 

In the same rank with wrestlers and pugilists we class those 
who are called discoboloi, or quoit-players, from the game of 
throwing the discus or quoit. It seems natural at a first glance 
to rank the sport among exercises of skill ; but it must be 
considered that the quoit was a very heavy mass, difficult to 
handle, and that it was the object of the player not to aim 
at a particular mark, but to heave it up and throw it as far 
as possible. It was a game, therefore, which required much 
more strength than skill. 

The quoit itself consisted of a piece of flat metal, or 
a stone, or a lump of heavy and compact wood, which one 
threw in the air as far in front of him as he could. Most 
commonly, however, it was made of copper or iron. When 
held in the right hand it came some distance up the fore- 
arm, and it became more perfect in form in course of time. 
In the great days of Greece, it may be said to have been 
made like the ball of the eye, bulging in the middle, but 
growing thinner at the edges. Lucian has described it as a 
small round buckler, so polished and smooth that it readily 
slipped from the hand of the person holding it. 

The throwing of the quoit — a very ancient game — was 
practised even in the heroic age, and the invention has been 



4 8 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

assigned to Perseus, son of Jupiter and Danae. In the 
times of Homer the quoit was a mass of rough iron called 
solos j and was used just as it came from the foundry before 
it had been moulded by the hammer. 

Each player threw the quoit in his turn, no doubt in an 
order previously settled by lot, and endeavoured to surpass 
his opponents. The prize was won by him who threw it 
furthest, and this result of the competition proves that the 
game depended on strength rather than skill. The dis- 
tance to which a strong hand could cast the iron became 
a measure of length acknowledged and ratified by usage, 
for in ancient times, " a cast of the quoit " was an ex- 
pression as well understood as the range of a gun amongst 
us. Homer was intelligible in his time, when he says, 
speaking of a chariot race, " The horses of Antilochus 
outstepped those of Menelaus all the distance traversed by 
a quoit thrown by a young man who wishes to put forth his 
strength." The same instrument served for all the competitors, 
and at each throw the place where the quoit fell was marked 
by a stake, or an arrow, or a mark of some such kind. It 
will be remembered that in the "Odyssey," it is Minerva 
who, disguised, renders this service to Ulysses, and the 
goddess proved so good a marker that the quoit of her hero 
always found itself far in advance of those of the others. 
Ulysses had found this game established among the Phaea- 
cians at the court of King Alcinous, in the country to which 
the tempest had driven him after the sack of Troy. It was 
not surprising that it was familiar to him, for he had seen it 
played in the Greek camp before the walls of Priam's 
renowned city. Especially at the time when Achilles, 
refusing to act with his countrymen, kept within his tent, 
his Myrmidons amused themselves by playing with quoits 



QUOIT THROWING. 49 

on the sea-shore. In Sparta the game was specially cultivated 
— no doubt, because it' was an excellent training for the 
art of war, strengthening the arms of the young warriors 
for wielding freely the sword or javelin. The Romans also, 
under the emperors, practised the art, which the ancients 
seem to have held in higher esteem than the moderns do. 

In playing at quoits the athlete placed himself in a 
space called balbis. He advanced his right leg, slightly 
bending the knee, with all the weight of the body resting on 
the right foot. When he was ready to launch the heavy 
ma.ss, he bent his body, his left hand took a point of sup- 
port, while his right extended holding his quoit, and raised 
behind him to the level of his shoulder, remained a moment 
in this position, then described half a circle in the air, and 
the athlete, collecting all his strength, made his throw, leap- 
ing forward at the same time, as if to increase the force of 
projection. 

The quoit-thrower who, when commencing to take his 
part in the game, happened to let the instrument fall, was 
at once excluded from the contest. It was the practice of 
players to rub their right hands with mud or dust, and they 
treated in the same way the quoit, in order that, being thus 
made less smooth, it might be more easily handled. There 
has been much discussion on the points whether the quoit 
throwers wholly or partially divested themselves of their 
clothing, and whether they anointed themselves before enter- 
ing the lists. It is beyond doubt that the use of oil would 
increase the elasticity and power of the muscles, but it is 
equally evident that if it was used the body must have 
been uncovered. The idea that the quoit-throwers engaged 
naked is also favoured by the fact that the game ranked third 
in the Pentathlon, or the five kinds of exercises in vogue at 

D 



So 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



the Olympic games. These were — Wrestling, running on 
foot, quoit-throwing, leaping, and javelin-throwing. Now, 
in both the departments which preceded it, the athletes were 
naked, and were rubbed with oil and dust, and therefore it is 
probable that on entering on the next they still remained 
unclothed. 

The quoit-thrower at play was a favourite theme with 
the Greek artists, but no one has 
treated the subject so happily as 
the sculptor Myron. The original 
work has not been transmitted to 
us, but many copies exist, the best 
of which is to be found in the col- 
lection of antiquities in the British 
Museum. Myron, who flourished 
about 432 B.C., was gifted with a 
genius for modelling animals as 
well as human beings. All his 
works are instinct with life and 
action ; and it is for these qualities 
that his statue of the Discobolos is 
so remarkable. It was greatly ad- 
mired by the ancients, and Quintilian mentions it as a 
model of its kind. " How much more powerful," cries the 
Latin critic, "is the effect upon the spectator when the 
artist represents his subject in action and not fixed and in 
repose." It was in this precisely that the merit of the sculp- 
tor consisted. Many had previously represented the quoit- 
player before or after the exercise, but Myron was the first 
to render him in the very act of throwing. 

The mountaineers of the Appenzell practise a similar 
game, though in their case the instrument employed is a 




The Statue of the Quoit-thrower. 



QUOIT THROWING. 53 

stone of considerable weight. They assemble twice a year to 
hold their tournament. One stone serves for all the com- 
petitors ; he who throws it furthest in the manner already 
described, gains the prize. He raises his right hand, which 
holds the projectile, to the height of his right shoulder, 
bends his body slightly, and, as he discharges the stone, 
runs forward a pace or two. 

In Scotland, " putting the stone," a game in which a 
heavy stone is thrown forward from over the shoulder, is 
practised ; as also, chiefly among the Highlanders, a game 
called " tossing the caber," or " throwing the hammer," to 
which reference will be made hereafter. 



CHAPTER V. 

BOXING IN ENGLAND. 

The Age of Philosophy and Boxing — Boxing kept up by the Aris« 
tocracy — The Friend of a Prince of the Blood — J. Broughton, the 
Father of Boxing —The Last Days of a Professor — The Champions 
of England — The Gentleman Prize-fighter — The Breviary and 
Golden Book of Boxers — Rupture of Friendly Relations between 
England and America — Black and White— The Famous Crib — A 
Great Day — Extravagant Ovations — Cook's discovery of Boxing in 
Polynesia— Female Boxers in England— S ay ers and Heenan. 

Nothing less resembled Greece than England ; no one less 
readily suggests the idea of the Greek than an Englishman \ 
and yet, almost to the present day, Great Britain has main- 
tained the practice of antiquity in regard to pugilism, but 
without that air of elegance and nobleness which distin- 
guished even the least refined amusements of the Greeks. 
This is the position which England occupied until recently 
among the nations of Europe; that while in France, for 
instance, prize-fighting has never become a national insti- 
tution, here, until recently, boxers did not require to induce 
the people to witness their exhibitions, for they had the 
people for the most part on their side. 

It is somewhat singular that the English should have 
conceived a passion for pugilism in the same age — the 
eighteenth century — in which philosophy made such great 
advances among them, and through them influenced the 
whole continent. The rules which are observed to the 
present day and determine the conditions of the contest, 



BOXING IN ENGLAND. 55 

the laws to be observed during the "rounds" of which 
the battle consists, the rest allowed after every round, are 
the productions of Jack Broughton, a professional boxer, 
who managed to get the sporting world to adopt them in 
1743. Sword combats began to be less the fashion during 
the reign of George L, and boxing, an amusement less 
offensive in appearance, replaced them in public favour. 

Broughton was the first who assumed, or obtained by the 
suffrages of the world of sport, 'the title of " Champion of 
England/' that glorious distinction which each performer in 
the ring resolves he will one day attain, or perish in the 
attempt. Few, however, long maintain this elevated posi- 
tion. " The belt " slips from the holder sooner or later, and 
the palm is handed to the first assailant who, having a 
rougher hide and a quicker hand and eye than his, thrashes 
him out of his envied honours. 

From the first boxing was patronised by the great. 
Broughton, who had his theatre or academy in Tottenham 
Court Road, had for his chief admirer and zealous pro- 
tector the second son of the king, the Duke of Cumberland, 
who regularly attended the boxing-school; and took the 
" professor " so closely into his friendship, that he attached 
him to his retinue while making a continental tour. Upon 
taking Jack to see the parade of grenadiers at Berlin, he 
asked him what he thought of those great fellows, and how 
he would like to encounter one of them in the ring. 
" Faith," replied the pugilist, " I could * lick f a regiment, 
provided I had a dinner after each ' set-to.'" 

Amateurs still speak in high terms of the originality of 
Broughton's style ; but there was an end to all his greatness, 
for he was beaten at last. The thunderbolt in Broughton's 
case came in the shape and with the vulgar features of a 



56 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

fellow named Slack, a butcher by trade, a boxer by accident, 
who, having taken offence at the champion of England upon 
the Hounslow race-course, had the temerity to send him a 
cartel. Full of contempt for an adversary whose name was 
unknown in the ring, Broughton never doubted for a 
moment that fortune would be faithful to him, and did not 
take the precaution of putting himself into training. So 
great was his confidence, that the evening before the contest 
he dreaded only one thing, viz., that Slack would not come 
forward on the morrow, and in fear of this, it is said, he 
sent him a present of ten guineas, to engage him not to 
break his word. 

Before the combat commenced, on Tuesday, the ioth of 
April, 1750, Broughton had apparently so much the supe- 
riority, that the betting was ten to one in his favour. His 
advantage, however, was not of long duration, for after a 
few minutes the tide turned in favour of his opponent. 
Slack, driven back by the violent blows of the champion, 
rushed upon Broughton with a spring, and " landed " such a 
blow between his' eyes as the great man did not expect, and 
left him as much blinded as surprised. The spectators, f 
however, only remarked that Broughton no longer charged 
with his usual spirit, that he kept more upon the defensive ; 
and his patron, the Duke of Cumberland, cried out to him, 
anxiously, "What's wrong, Broughton? You can't fight — 
you're beaten." " I no longer see my man," cried the 
unfortunate pugilist, " I am blind, but not beaten ; put me 
only opposite him, and you will see." " The admiration of 
his friends was all at once changed into contempt," says an 
eye-witness ; n their countenances were all colours and all 
lengths, for they had betted heavily at ten to one." Slack 
maintained his advantage, and won the battle in fourteen 



BOXING IN ENGLAND. 57 

minutes. In less than a quarter of an hour Broughton's 
fame and title of champion of England were gone. 

The Duke of Cumberland, it is almost unnecessary to 
say, changed his opinion of Broughton, by whose defeat he 
had lost several thousand pounds sterling. Deprived of his 
patronage the prize-fighter could hardly make a livelihood, 
and though he still appeared in public, it was in the pro- 
vinces, like those actors who, after failure in the metropolis, 
drag out a laborious life in the shady places of country 
towns. The " father of boxing" lived to his thirty-ninth 
year, died the 8th of January, 1789, and is buried in the 
Lambeth cemetery. 

Was this pugilist really the inventor of boxing, or should 
he be regarded only as the restorer of an exercise practised 
a long time previously in England? It is said that the 
history of the art of boxing goes back in this country to the 
highest antiquity. In the time of King Alfred it is stated 
to have formed part of the military education. Richard I. 
was clever with his fists, as is proved by an anecdote told 
by Sit Walter Scott in his notes to " Ivanhoe." While a 
prisoner in Germany, the king received and accepted an 
invitation from a son of his jailor to a boxing-match. The 
blow dealt him by the plebeian made him stagger ; but he 
replied with another upon the ear so terrific that he killed 
his antagonist on the spot. He had previously rubbed his 
hand over with wax, a practice unknown, Sir Walter believes, 
among the modern professors of the science. The great 
novelist is not correct here, however, as strange decoctions 
are used prior to a fight, in order to harden the hands and 
cause the fingers to stick tighter together. One of Shake- 
speare's heroes wins the heart and the hand of a heroine 
by acquitting himself worthily in a wrestling-match in her 



58 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

presence. At whatever period the art was first introduced 
into England, it was in the eighteenth century, as already 
mentioned, that it first became popular among all classes. 
Great professors now began to give entertainments in the 
theatres, or opened theatres of their own ; and academies 
where they taught the art were common. So great was the 
love of the people for boxing, that about the time of 
Broughton, it is known that an English lord fought a bar- 
ber in the open street, and that a bishop had a similar 
encounter with a person who had injured him. 

The title of Champion of England, after it had been lost 
by Broughton, devolved upon one of his illustrious disciples, 
Tom Johnson, whose first public set-to was in 1783. His sur- 
prising strength was first made known by an act which does 
the pugilist great credit. When about twenty-one years of 
age he was engaged on the Thames wharves in loading and 
discharging wheat. A fellow-workman, upon whom a wife 
and family were dependent, fell ill, and would have been des- 
titute had not Johnson volunteered to do his companion's 
work as well as his own, on condition that the sick ,man 
should continue to receive his wages. The warehouse in 
which the wheat was stored was situated on a steep ascent, 
which, from the difficulties it presented to man or beast 
fated to ascend it loaded with a burden, came to receive the 
name of " Labour-in- Vain Hill." Up this ascent Tom 
Johnson might have been seen every day doing double 
duty, carrying two sacks instead of one, and thus earning 
for the poor family a livelihood during the time that its 
bread-winner was unable to do his work. On one occasion, 
by way of sport, Johnson lifted a sack of wheat with one 
hand and swung it round his head; on another he performed 
the same feat immediately after a successful encounter with 



BOXING IN ENGLAND. 59 

a celebrated pugilist, thus showing how little the struggle 
had unnerved or exhausted him. 

Though he possessed great muscular strength he was not 
so elegant in his execution as one of his successors, John 
Jackson, called the "gentleman boxer," whose name was 
associated with the beau monde of his day. The heir of the 
English crown was sometimes present at his assaults, and 
Lord Byron, who was one of the best amateurs of his day, 
boasts frequently that this accomplished artist was his tutor. 

It cannot be denied, indeed, that though prize-fighting 
has practically disappeared, never to be revived again in 
England, and boxing is taught simply as a gymnastic exer- 
cise, the ring has in. its day had numerous influential ad- 
mirers. Did this assertion require it, proof could be found 
in the fact that its traditions have been most assiduously 
collected. Many men, who but for their fighting qualities 
would have passed into the limbo of nameless black- 
guardism, have actually made some little mark in history, 
have had their biographies, generally discreditable, written, 
and their portraits, generally inane, engraved. A singular 
book, which may be described as the livre tfor of the 
sporting world, called " Boxiana ; or, Sketches of Pu- 
gilism Ancient and Modem," has been compiled by a 
gentleman not without literary pretensions, Pierce Egan. 
This work, in five large volumes, contains histories of the 
great men who have figured in the ring, descriptions of 
the chief battles, &c, and is embellished, like its heroes, 
with numerous cuts. 

The whole history of the ring may be found in 
" Boxiana," besides many things that it is well to know, in 
order to be able to circumvent an opponent. Strength 
alone will not suffice, and can be doubled by the help 



6o WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

of art, for a blow is effectual not so much from its force 
as from its form of delivery. The position of the body is 
of the greatest importance in boxing. When its weight is 
justly balanced, and the equilibrium is maintained, a man 
is in the best position for resisting attack from without. 
The attitude of the legs, and their degree of separation, 
are matters of the utmost importance. The left leg is 
advanced some distance in front of the right, as it is the 
left side which is presented to the adversary. The left arm 
serves as a shield to parry the blows, and the right is re- 
served in readiness to reply to any "message" from the 
antagonist 

The pugilist who bore the title of the champion of 
England at the time of the publication of " Boxiana," was 
Tom Crib, born the 8th of July, 1781, at Hanham, upon the 
borders of Somersetshire and Gloucestershire. Crib was one 
of the most popular prize-fighters that ever lived, and was 
patronised by the best society, was entertained by the nobles 
and gentry, and was the object of the ovations of the people, 
who forgot the ci-devant porter and coalman in the deter- 
mined and unequalled boxer. 

The public were vastly proud of Crib, because in two 
encounters he defeated America, in the person of Moly- 
neux, a negro, who had come across the Atlantic, full of 
confidence, for the purpose of adorning his sable brows with 
the British laurels. The first battle took place on the 10th of 
December, 18 10, at Copthall Common, Surrey. Molyneux was 
beaten, but he demanded his revenge, and a second meeting 
was arranged. The enthusiasm of the people in favour of 
the champion now rose to perfect frenzy, and the highest 
personages in the land are said to have been present at the 
fight. The spot fixed upon was Thistleton Gap, in Rutland- 



BOXING IN ENGLAND. 6l 

shire, and the date of the event was the 20th of September, 
181 1. Tom Crib, the plebeian, had been monopolised fol 
three months before the great day by one of his aristocratic 
backers, who took him with him to Scotland, in order to 
get him into the best possible training. Crib had to submit 
to all the fancies of his trainer, and at the end of the three 
months avowed that he would willingly fight any battle 
rather than go through a similar course of discipline a 
second time. On the eve of the great event it was not 
possible to obtain a bed at any price for twenty miles round 
the scene chosen for the contest, and in the morning there 
were twenty thousand spectators on the spot. A number of 
the most muscular pugilists of the day were appointed to 
guard the ring. An account of the battle would be out of 
place here, but the following extracts from the bulletin of the 
day will serve to show its principal features : — 

" 1 8th round. The champion of England struck his 
opponent on the breast with his right hand, and Molyneux 
answered with a blow on the head. In return the black 
received a hit on the forehead, which staggered him ; but 
with the violence of his own blow, Crib fell. Both were in 
a state of extreme exhaustion, 

" 19th round. Impossible to distinguish the features of 
the combatants. Their faces are horribly bruised, but the 
difference of colour in the men enables us to distinguish them" 

Among those present were the Marquis of Queensbury, 
Lord Yarmouth, Lord' Pomfret, General Grosvenor, Major 
Mellish, Captain Barclay, who gained ten thousand pounds 
that day by the victory of the champion, who, on his side, 
got four hundred pounds. The total betting on the event 
reached over a million of money. 

Crib's return to London was a triumphal progress. A 



62 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

young gentleman " about town " took him back in his car- 
riage, drawn by four horses, adorned with flags and ribands, 
and in the towns through which they passed Crib was 
received as a successful general who brings the news of his 
own victory. The approaches to his house in White Lion 
Street were crammed with a multitude, who kept up an 
incessant hurrah for the champion of England. 

About this time an Edinburgh journal, remarking with 
some severity upon the money expended in entertaining Crib 
after his victory, said that a subscription opened for the 
purpose of sending help to the English prisoners then de- 
tained in France had not been responded to with an equal 
degree of generosity. Crib did not find the remarks of the 
Scotsman to his taste, so he replied, saying that he would have 
the honour of " making acquaintance with the writer of the 
article on the occasion of his approaching visit to Edinburgh," 
— an announcement which no doubt fluttered the Scotch 
editor not a little. We hear, however, no more of the 
affair. 

The demonstration in honour of Tom Crib was calculated 
to have more effect upon his head than all the thumps of 
Molyneux. lie was entertained to a great banquet at 
which gentlemen of title made speeches in his glorifi- 
cation and sang songs in his praise. A silver cup worth 
fifty guineas, together with its contents, raised on the spot, 
and amounting to eighty guineas, was presented to him. Im- 
mediately afterwards another banquet was got up for him, 
and the same silver cup went round the company with a 
highly favourable result. On the lid of the cup the arms 
of the county of Gloucester were engraven, and underneath 
was a shield, the four quarters of which represented the 
scene of the battle, &c. The well-known line from Shake- 



BOXING IN ENGLAND. 6$ 

speare, " Damned be he who first cries, hold! enough!" 
was written below by way of legend. 

Prize-fights, which are now virtually abolished, were 
really not so dangerous to the combatants as they would 
appear. It is well known that in some cases the whole 
programme of the battle was previously arranged by the 
principals, and for a certain sum of money one of them con- 
sented to lose. In such a case the fight was only the repre- 
sentation of a play or farce that had already been rehearsed, 
and of which the actors are quite well prepared in their 
parts. "First blood," "first fall," &c. were all assigned; 
and the public were thus defrauded of the money they had 
betted upon men who, they really believed, were doing their 
best to win. 

Captain Cook was surprised to find that boxing was 
practised among the islanders of Polynesia. After stating 
that their contests did not differ from those that took place 
in England, he goes on to say that he was considerably 
astonished to see a couple of stout young women advance 
and commence to box, without the least ceremony, and with 
as much skill as the men. The engagement was of short 
duration, for at the end of half a minute one of the ladies 
was hors de combat. The winner was as warmly applauded 
as the boxers of the other sex who had fought for a much 
longer time. Good humour continued to prevail on both 
sides, though many of the champions, both male and female, 
received blows from which they could not recover for many a 
day. Cook was ignorant, no doubt, that fistic encounters be- 
tween females occasionally took place even in England, as is 
proved by an announcement which appeared in the papers 
of 1772, and reproduced in "Boxiana," to the effect that 
Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words 



64 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

with Anna Hyfield, and desiring to obtain satisfaction, 
invited her to come up on the stage, where they would box 
together ; both holding half-a-crown in each hand, the first 
who let the coin drop to lose the battle. In answer to this 
challenge, came the following reply, stating that Anna 
Hyfield, of Newgate Market, having seen the challenge of 
Elizabeth Wilkinson, accepted her defiance, and would do 
her best to give her satisfaction. She only wanted one or 
two blows at her adversary. No dodging ! Elizabeth 
Wilkinson had only to stand up ! 

Amongst the many celebrated prize battles fought in 
later days was the encounter between the redoubtable Tom 
Sayers and the American, Heenan, called the " Benicia Boy." 
The ring had fallen very low in public estimation by reason 
of the malpractices of its professors. Here, said the chief 
sporting journal of the period, was an opportunity of raising 
it once more to honour, and making it the sport of princes, 
poets, authors, and the educated classes of society. 

Sayers was originally a bricklayer, and had already fought 
many battles, being always victorious, except once with the 
famous Nat Langham. Heenan had recently beaten a 
Californian "digger" named John Morrissey, now a member 
of the American Congress, and one of the wealthiest 
gaming-house proprietors in the United States. Both 
possessed high reputations, and were supported for large 
sums — Heenan on account of his great size, for he stood 
over six feet in height, and was remarkably muscular ; while 
Sayers was noted for his " game " qualities, determination, 
and skill. Tom measured but five feet eight inches in 
height ; still he was a big man, large shouldered and strong 
loined. The battle took place on April 17, i860, at Farn- 
borough, near Aldershot camp, before many thousand 



BOXING IN ENGLAND, 67 

spectators. The Times, usually a non-pugilistic journal, so 
far as the P. R. is concerned, sent representatives, and over 
a column was allotted to a report of the proceedings, whilst 
All the Year Round published an article, and Punch a poem, 
and the Balzac of his day, Mr. W. M. Thackeray, wrote 
about it. Peers, statesmen, men of letters, painters, divines, 
and actors were present, and assisted to form the inner circle 
outside the " ring." 

The men fought for over two hours, when the ring was 
broken, thirty-seven rounds having taken place. Heenan 
was now all but blind, and Sayers's right arm, the celebrated 
"auctioneer," was much injured. How the fight would 
have ended no one could tell, and eventually the stakes 
were drawn, each principal receiving a belt. Sayers's pluck, 
in standing before an adversary who felled him over a dozen 
times, was highly applauded, and the members of the Stock 
Exchange subscribed several thousand pounds, which were 
invested in the funds for his benefit. Heenan became 
afterwards a turf speculator, and is now in America. Sayers 
went round the country with a circus, and died, in 1865, of 
a broken constitution. 

Since then there has been no prize battle to enlist the 
sympathies of the nation, although several scientific pro- 
fessors of the art are still living. The police have of late 
shown great activity in suppressing these encounters, and 
several of the most celebrated boxers of the day have been 
compelled to betake themselves to other pursuits, or cross 
the Atlantic, where "barneys," or "sold" fights appear to 
be as frequent as of late years they were on this side of the 
ocean. 



% 2 



CHAPTER Vt 

ENGLISH WRESTLERS— T. TOPHAM. 

Wrestling in England at the Present Day — Clubs and Meetings — The 
Games of Scotland— Throwing the Hammer — Cumberland and 
Westmoreland Men — Wrestlers of Cornwall and Devonshire— The 
Croc-en-jamb— The Kick — Sir Thomas Parkyns, of the Eighteenth 
Century — His Originality — T. Topham, his Immense Strength — ? 
His performances before the Physician Desaguliers. 

Long before the practice of boxing became general in 
Britain, the English cultivated wrestling with ardour. The 
Londoners were very fond of this exercise, and never failed 
to exhibit their abilities in this direction at the fair of St. 
Bartholomew, which took place every August. The practice 
of wrestling is continued to the present day in many parts of 
England — in the western counties, Cornwall and Devonshire ; 
and in Cheshire 1 , Lancashire, Cumberland, and Westmore* 
land, in the north. Clubs are organised in those counties to 
keep alive the sacred fire among the youths, to kindle zeal 
in the indifferent, and to award prizes to the successful. 
The Athletic Society of Liverpool recognises the pagan 
Hercules as its patron, and the torso of that famous athlete 
figures in the centre of the medals which they distribute. 

Among the games practised in Scotland none is more 
popular than tossing the caber, which consists of throwing up 
a fir-tree of about twelve feet in length. The tree is entire, 
but care is taken to remove the branches and to shape it at 
one of the extremities. The player seizes the caoer by this 
narrow end, raises it to the height of his shoulder, arvd 




THROWING THE HAMMER IN SCOTLAND. 



5^. GAUCfJAR^ 



ENGLISH WRESTLERS — T. T0PHAM. 7 1 

throws it up vertically. If it is successfully thrown it ought 
to come down upon its broad end, and stand a moment 
perpendicular before it falls. . The "hammer," which is 
used in another Scotch game of a similar kind, is a ball of 
iron or brass fixed at the end of a shaft of about a yard in 
length. The competitor takes the shaft in his hand, and, 
whirling the hammer round and round several times, hurls 
it from him, taking a leap at the instant of throwing, to 
give more effect to the effort. In this game strength is not 
of so much account as skill and practice, without which, 
indeed, no one need attempt the feat. The longest throw 
wins the prize. 

Amongst the best wrestlers in England are the northt 
countrymen, of whom a ponderous fellow, eighteen stone in 
weight, named Bill Jamieson, is the leader. Last year he 
challenged any man in the world, and offered to give one fall 
in seven, so that he would have to throw an adversary four 
times to win. Dick Wright, of Longtown, is also well known 
in the Cumberland and Westmoreland rings; and at the annual 
meetings of the Society at the Agricultural Hall, London, 
every Good Friday, these men are generally left in for the 
final falls in the " all weights " prizes. The terms in use in 
the north are the " cross buttock," the " back heel," the " in 
lock," the "swinging hipe," and many others. The men 
seize each other round the waist, and as no kicking is 
allowed, as in the west-country style, they grapple for some 
time before turning an opponent over, or "felling" him. 
Prizes are also given at many other towns, viz., at Man- 
chester, Liverpool, and Newcastle, while at Carlisle several 
days a year are devoted to this sport. 

Many wrestlers are also at the present day to be found 
in Cornwall and Devonshire. There is no rivalry between 



72 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the inhabitants of these bordering counties, who, keeping 
themselves apart, have no wish to measure themselves 
against each other, and if they compete, their striving does 
not part friendship. They practise modes of wrestling 
diametrically opposite, and nothing in the world would 
make them interfere with each other in any way. The men 
of Cornwall cultivate particularly the croc-en-jamb, which, 
after them, has received the name, now famous in England, 
of the Cornish hug. Those of Devon leave this practice to 
their neighbours ; but, in return, they use a coup which is 
peculiarly dangerous and terrible — the kick, a compliment 
addressed usually to the legs of the adversary. Conse- 
quently, the combatants strive to keep their thighs, their 
calves, and shins, as safe as possible. If the reader has seen 
a bull-fight, he will remember that the Picadors take similar 
precautions. Under their breeches of buffalo hide they 
have leg-cases of sheet iron, the effect of which is to render 
harmless the horns of the enraged animal, but which at the 
same time are so heavy that once down the combatant 
cannot get up again. 

The Cornish Hug is the subject of a very curious book, 
written in the last century, by Sir Thomas Parkyns, who was 
not a mere dilettante, but combined theory with practice. 
His portrait, somewhat disfigured by time, is still to be seen 
at the church of Bunny, Nottingham, where he is repre- 
sented in the costume and attitude of a wrestler. For a 
magistrate, he employed his leisure in a somewhat singular 
fashion ; but no man is always able to control his hobbies. 
Sir Thomas came into the world with a passion, or rather a 
mania for athletic exercises. The games which he had 
instituted in his parish and upon his domain of Bunny Park, 
were continued after his death (March 28, 1741), for he 



ENGLISH WRESTLERS — T. TOPHAM. 73 

left some prizes, the last of which were not distributed till 
1810. This strange character, who seems to have escaped 
from Olympia, and to have wandered into our modern times 
by accident, amused himself by descending into the ring, 
and there disputing with his creditors the debts which he 
owed them. He sometimes won, and in that case put his 
money in his purse. His debts, however, were paid by 
his domestics, as a rule, all stout fellows who had given 
proof of their quality as wrestlers. Some of them had been 
famous athletes, particularly his butler and valet, both of 
whom he admitted into his service only after he had had 
proof of the solidity of their fists. 

The virtue of temperance, which Sir Thomas practised 
for its own sake, carried him on to the age of seventy- 
eight years, without even having experienced a single 
illness in all his life ; but at that age he was obliged to 
succumb to the embrace of the formidable wrestler who 
spares no one. 

Sir Thomas Parkyns had also a mania for collecting 
coffins ! He had already gathered a number in the church- 
yard, when the idea occurred to him to select one for his own 
use, and to have it placed opposite to him in the church, 
surmounted by his bust in marble, carved by his chaplain. 
It is to be hoped that the worthy ecclesiastic was worth 
more as a theologian than as a sculptor, for his talent as an 
artist is by no means great. 

In the same century lived another very remarkable 
athlete, who performed surprising feats of strength — Thomas 
Topham, born at London in 17 10. He established himself 
in 1 741 at Derby, where he performed a prodigious feat of 
strength, that of lifting three casks filled with water, and 
weighing in all 1,836 lbs. One of the aldermen of Derby 



74 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

seeing a man of plain exterior presenting himself before him, 
asked what was wanted, and was told by the " plain " man, 
Thomas Topham, that he requested permission to perform 
certain feats which required uncommon strength. Topham 
then was a man of five feet ten inches in height, about thirty- 
years of age, well proportioned, and extraordinarily muscular. 
There was, however, nothing special in his appearance, if we 
except his armpits and hams, which, hollow in the case of 
ordinary people, were with him full of muscles and tendons. 
At the time when Desaguliers was making his curious 
experiments in physics and mechanics, and was seeking to 
explain scientifically certain effects of muscular force, he 
went to see Thomas Topham, who was most honest in all 
his performances. " He entirely ignores the art of making 
his strength appear more surprising than it is," says 
Desaguliers, "and even undertakes sometimes things 
which become very difficult to him owing to his disad- 
vantageous position, for he often attempts and does what 
people tell him other athletes have done who had special 
advantages which he does not possess. Having wagered that 
he would pull against two horses, supported by the trunk of 
a tree, he was pulled from his position with such violence 
that one of his knees coming into contact with the wood, 
the result was a fracture of the knee-pan, which caused 
the loss of part of the strength of that limb. Now, if he had 
put himself in an advantageous position, he could have 
pulled against four horses instead of two without the least in- 
convenience. It was probably in consequence of this acci- 
dent that in his experiment with the casks he worked not 
with the muscles of the legs, as others who have attempted 
similar feats on a smaller scale have done, but with those 
of the neck and shoulders. 




TOPHAlVf S GREAT FEAT. 



ENGLISH WRESTLERS — T. TOPHAM* 77 

Topham had in himself the strength of twelve men 
united, as is proved by the feats which he performed before 
Desaguliers, who has done them the honour of admitting 
them into his " System of Experimental Philosophy," and has 
thus given them the stamp of unimpeachable authenticity. 
He took a bar of iron, the two ends of which he held in his 
hands, placed the middle of the bar behind the nape of his 
neck, and then brought the extremities forward. He then 
undid what he had done ; that is, he made the bar of iron 
straight again — an operation much more difficult than the 
other. This feat he again performed, in consequence of having 
had a difference with some one of his acquaintance. He 
took an iron spit from the mantelpiece and twisted it round 
his neck with as much ease as a cravat or a handkerchief. 
All his neighbours endeavoured to live on a good under- 
standing with this terrible man. The housewives hid from 
his notice all their pewter plates and pots, for fear he 
should take a fancy to crack up the one like egg-shells or 
roll up the other like a sheet of paper. The English maga- 
zines of the eighteenth century relate that he sometimes 
used to amuse himself by cracking cocoa-nuts, in the hearing 
of those who were near him, as another might crack hazel 
nuts. One night, perceiving a watchman asleep in his box, 
he carried both the man and his shell to a great distance, 
and deposited them on the wall of a church-yard. What 
must have been the astonishment of the guardian of the 
peace, when awaking in the morning he found himself so 
highly perched ! 

As frequently happens, Topham was not endowed with 
strength of mind equal to that of his body, and had a wife 
that rendered existence so insupportable that he committed 
suicide in the prime of life. 



CHAPTER VII 

VENETIAN GAMES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Hercules and Venice — To what Politics may descend — The Rivalry of 
the Castellani and the Nicoloti— The Battle of Fat Thursday— 
The Forze d'Ercole — Architecture of Flesh and Bones. 

That living in a dull, humid, and cold atmosphere, the 
English interest themselves in games of the kind which we 
have described is not at all astonishing. The amusements of 
a people are founded on their character, and the character of 
the people depends to a great extent on the geographical 
position of the country and the nature of the climate. The 
English are only faithful to their disposition in preferring 
sports that call for the exercise of great muscular strength 
and activity. But who would suspect that Venice, the gay 
and joyous, should have given itself up for many years — from 
the middle ages to the period of the Revolution — to amuse- 
ments of the same description? How should these rude 
games come to have a place in the brilliant fetes, of which 
the masquerade, dancing, love, and music, could never form 
too great a part, and the attractions of which drew strangers 
from all parts of Europe ? Who could here have introduced 
games in which physical force alone was demanded, and 
among others the Forze d'Ercole, the labours of Her- 
cules ? What place could he have among a people so light 
and frivolous ? Hercules spinning at the feet of Omphale 
perhaps, but surely not Hercules the destroyer of lions and 
hydras ! These exhibitions had a very ancient origin, and 



VENETIAN GAMES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 79 

an object which strangers could not fathom, but which the 
ever-watchful government of Venice knew well how to 
appreciate. 

The Senate encouraged an ancient rivalry that existed 
between two powerful factions in Venice, the Castellani 
and the Nicoloti, who took part in the athletic exercises, 
and competed in displaying the highest degree of strength 
and skill. These parties derived their names from the 
quarters of the city which they inhabited, the streets of 
Castello and San Nicolo, on opposite banks of the Grand 
Canal, and connected by a bridge, which formed a sort of 
neutral ground, as it were, between two hostile camps, and 
often became a field of battle hotly contested. It is not 
easy to discover what was the origin of the rivalry between 
the Castellani and the Nicoloti. Some say that it dates from 
the earliest times of Venice, when the islands which now form 
the city of the lagunes were not united, when the rights 
of each being still undecided, and the limits of their pro- 
perty undefined, disputes continually arose about the right 
of fishing in a certain reach of the sea, or of hunting on 
a certain strip of land. Others have traced the origin of 
the quarrel to the time when the inhabitants of Equilium 
and those of Heraclea, deadly enemies, chased from their 
respective towns by the hordes of barbarians that poured 
down upon them over the Alps, sought refuge in the midst 
of the lagunes, and established themselves upon opposite 
banks of what afterwards came to be known as the Grand 
Canal. In mingling with the original inhabitants they 
infected them with the spirit of mutual jealousy and aversion 
which animated themselves, and which only became intensi- 
fied with time. 

When the partisans of these hostile camps met in the 



80 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

streets, like the fabled Capulets and Montagues of Mantua* 
or the royalists and reformers in the High Street of Edin* 
burgh, in Queen Mary's time, a deadly party fight imme- 
diately took place. The authorities did not feel themselves 
bound to interfere; on the contrary, they allowed blood to 
be spilt, not, perhaps, in too great profusion, but sufficiently 
to constitute a new cause of quarrel, and to awaken in the 
hearts of the vanquished a burning desire for vengeance which 
should be gratified on another occasion. The Lacedae- 
monians urged their youth to join in similar contests, says 
Amelot de la Houssaye, but it was for the purpose of train- 
ing them for war, whereas in the case of the Venetian 
government the object was to sow and to nourish dissension 
among the populace. In fact, if the citizens, instead of 
quarrelling among themselves, had become united, and in 
doing so had gained confidence in themselves, they would 
have overturned the power of the aristocracy, for they must 
have seen how superior they were then in numbers to the 
ruling class, which jealously kept all the wealth and influence 
of the state to themselves. Divide and crush, this was the 
internal policy of the. government of Venice. 

The Castellans and Nicolites did not perceive that by 
their dissensions they were only strengthening a power 
jealous of its privileges, and opposed to the rights of the 
people, a power, too, which they could easily have broken 
down by their union. Another cause of quarrel between the 
parties was that the Nicolites had the privilege of electing a 
special doge for their own quarter ; and this potentate, who 
was always an artisan of San Nicolas, was the mark for 
many a pun, sarcasm, and epigram, on the part of the Cas- 
tellani. But it was particularly on solemn fete days that the 
smouldering hate of these factions broke out, and that from 



VENETIAN GAMES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 8l 

taunts they proceeded to blows. The Giovedi grasso (Fat 
Thursday, a famous holiday in Venice) was always eagerly 
taken advantage of by the rival clans, and was invariably ths 
occasion of a grand fight between them, the field of battle 
being the bridge which we have mentioned as communi- 
cating between the hostile quarters. The fray took place at 
its middle point, whither each side rushed from the bank 
which formed the boundary of its quarter, and the question 
to be decided was which faction should force a passage to 
the territory of the other. It was never concluded without 
the shedding of blood ; and as the bridge had no parapet, 
the day after the encounter was generally employed in 
fishing out the dead bodies from the canal. 

The Forze (TErcole had no such bloody consequences. 
For the Guerra dei Pugni (fistic encounters) any one would 
do ; but for these Labours of Hercules only the very best 
men were selected. The feat which received this name was 
the formation of pyramids of human beings, thirty in num- 
ber, and all of great strength. The base was composed of 
about twenty men, and the tiers that rose above went on 
successively diminishing up to the summit, which was 
formed of a single young athlete, who, upon his dangerous 
perch, performed endless evolutions. After this youth had 
done all he knew, he bowed to the Doge and the assembled 
grandees, and then leapt down from the top of the pyramid 
upon a mattress or cushion which was spread for him on the 
ground. The men who had supported him then bowed and 
followed him in his perilous descent, and so on, one after 
the other, to the lowest tier. When one faction had finished 
its feats, the other came upon the arena. The victory was 
won by the troupe that formed the highest pyramid, or 
maintained its balance for the longest space of time. 

F 



82 WONDERS OP BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

Their skill did not, however, end here, for other feats 
which they practised were in the highest degree astonishing, 
the more so that the performers were simple artisans, and 
did not make athletics their trade. It is said that they 
could form wide spanning arches, erect colonnades, pile up 
pediments — in short, realise the wonders of architecture, 
imitating, for example, the designs of Palladio, without 
stone, mortar, or any material but their own bodies. 

To Jean Cousin, a celebrated painter of the French 
school, who had a great reputation during the reigns of 
Francis L, Henri II., and Charles IX., is attributed a 
painting on enamel, illustrative of these games, or at least it 
is so explained by Landon in his " Annales du Musee." The 
picture, which then belonged to a distinguished collector, 
M. Cambry, the author of numerous archaeological works, 
represents, according to Landon, " a variety of gymnastics, 
known in Italy as the ' Forzi/ and practised in Venice. The 
six figures which form this composition are remarkable for 
the boldness and grace of their attitudes. If the drawing is 
not absolutely correct, at least it is distinguished by a 
certain grandeur, and that sort of elegance which connects 
it with the Florentine school. " The composition, at all 
events, is original, and we are not astonished that this work 
has been, as the same critic says, " prized for its originality 
and the manner of its execution.* 




VENETIAN GAMES IN THE MIDDLE AGESL 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SCANDERBERG AND THE TURKS. 

The Grand Turk's Wrestlers in the Fifteenth Century— Scanderberg 
and the Scythian Giant — Persian Horsemen — A Good Swordsman 
—Men Beheaded by Sabre Strokes. 

At the time when the Venetian games, which did not go 
out of fashion till the end of the eighteenth century, were 
still in their glory, there lived not far from the territory of 
the republic of the lagunes, a man who could alone perform 
all the "Labours of Hercules." Few men, in point of 
physical strength, have surpassed this hero of the middle 
ages, who became the terror of the Turks, after having been 
their protegL 

This was the famous Scanderberg, King of Albania, 
whose real name was Georges Castriota. Born in 141 4 he 
was delivered as a hostage by his father, the King of Albania 
and Epirus, to Sultan Amurath II., who brought him up at 
his court. Castriota, remarkable for his personal beauty, 
excelled in all equestrian exercises and in the management 
of the sword and bow. His delight was to compete with 
the young Turkish nobles in their jousts and tourneys, and 
on almost every occasion he bore away the palm. 

Feats of physical strength were always held in high 
esteem by the Turks. No sooner had the Sultans become 
masters of Constantinople than they began to maintain at 
their court a troupe of professional athletes, who performed 
in their presence from time to time. These athletes, who 



66 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

were named gouressis, were men of the greatest daring and 
strength, and were, as a rule, natives of barbarous countries, 
such as India and Tartary. They were not slaves, like the 
other servants of the Grand Seigneur, but, entering his ser- 
vice of their own accord, were entirely free. 

In their exercises they employed all the feints and 
tricks of the ancient athletes, in order to bring their oppo- 
nents to the ground ; but they made use, besides, of certain 
peculiar processes of gymnastics which were not recognised 
by the Greeks. They were in the habit of scratching and 
biting the noses and ears of their opponents, sometimes 
carried away these features bodily with their teeth, and n\ 
fact made it a rule to inflict as much injury as they could,> 
worrying over their prey like dogs over a fallen deer. What, 
animated them with this spirit of ferocity was not so much 
the desire of victory, as a lively appreciation of the handful 
of ducats which the Grand Turk threw to the victor, and 
sometimes to. both combatants, when he was satisfied that 
each had done his best to disfigure his opponent. The 
gouressis fought entirely naked, with the exception of the 
greguees, a sort of close-fitting drawers made of hide, covering 
the body from the waist down to a little above the knee; 
This garment, like the rest of the body, was rubbed with oil, 
that no " hold " might be afforded to the antagonist. The 
battle over, the combatants enveloped themselves in long 
pelisses or cassocks, divided in front and buttoned half way 
up ; a large girdle with gold stripes was rolled round their 
middle, in the Turkish fashion, and on their heads they 
placed a bonnet called taquia, made either of black velvet, 
and shaped like that worn by the Poles, or of the dressed 
skin of a lamb. The top part of the bonnet fell back upon 
the shoulder. Thus accoutred they marched in companies 



SCANDERBERG AND THE TURKS. 8 J 

of ten or twelve, ready to measure themselves with any wh6 
might attempt to interrupt them. People, however, took 
very good care not to pick quarrels with them, as much 
because of the fury which they displayed in fighting, as the 
expertness which they exhibited in a practice to which they 
had been trained from their infancy, and in which it was 
very difficult to find any to surpass or even to equal them. 

The company oi goitres sis got up entertainments for the 
diversion of the Sultan, when he had nothing better with 
which to amuse himself, though in the time of the paladins 
and wandering knights he always had opportunities of wit- 
nessing more noble and attractive spectacles. 

One day, for example, there arrived at Adrianople a 
Scythian of enormous height, who gave a general defiance 
to the whole court to single combat. As no one seemed 
anxious to take, up the glove, the adventurer was beginning 
to flout the Turks, and brag that they were all afraid of him, 
when all at once young Scanderberg, though from his rank 
he was far above such an adversary, stepped forward, to the 
great astonishment of all. The court trembled for the youth; 
It was not long, however, before they were reassured, for he 
threw himself quickly upon his enemy, seized with his left 
hand the uplifted arm of the giant— which in the next 
moment would have come down with deadly effect — and at 
the same time sank his poniard in the braggart's throat. 

Some time afterwards two Persian cavaliers, mounted 
upon magnificent horses, presented themselves before 
Amurath, who was then holding his court at Pruse ill 
Bithynia, and offered their services, asking as a favour that 
their powers should be at once put to the proof. Scander- 
berg consented to fight them single-handed, on the condition 
that they should attack him " one at a time." The combat 



88 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

had scarcely begun before the second of the strangers, 
breaking his word, dashed lance in hand up to Scanderberg, 
who was at the time engaged with the other opponent 
Seeing him hurrying up, the youth did not wait for the 
assault; he ran towards him at full speed, and with one 
terrible blow made him pay dear for his treachery. Having 
thus got rid of this combatant, he turned to the other, 
scimitar m hand, struck him on the right shoulder near the 
neck, and drove his blade with such tremendous force that 
the man was cut in two down to the very haunches. The 
young prince offered the heads of the Persians to the sultan. 
" He was received/' says R. P. du Poncet, the historian of 
Scanderberg, "with all the honours which his triumph 
merited, and which showed him how high he had risen in 
the esteem of the monarch." It was for these and similar 
feats of strength and valour that the Turks gave him the 
name of Skander, or Iskanderberg — Prince Alexander. 

He was a man of great stature, and his strength was 
such that his arm, naked summer and winter, overthrew all 
obstacles. He used a scimitar almost as renowned as the 
Durandal of Roland, or the Excalibur of Arthur. In size 
and weight it was in proportion to his figure and powers, 
and, in case of need, he always carried with him in a large 
scabbard another weapon of the same make. The precau- 
tion was not a useless one, when we consider the terrible 
feats which this swordsman was called upon to perform. 
English historians, in recognising the fame of the " fearless 
De Courcey," Lord of Ulster, in the thirteenth century, 
mention that one day in the presence of the King of 
England he clove a steel helmet with one blow of his sword, 
and sank his weapon so deeply in the wooden block upon 
which it stood that not a man at court but himself could 



SCANDERBERG AND THE TURKS. 89 

pull it out again. Deeds like that, however, seem to have 
been only child's play to Scanderberg, who is said to have 
often cloven in two men who were clad in armour from 
head to foot 

The Sultan Mahomet II., who at the time was living on 
good terms with Scanderberg, resolved to beg from that hero 
the renowned sword, of the virtues of which every one spoke, 
and by means of which Scanderberg accomplished so many 
marvels. The hero hastened to offer the weapon to his 
sovereign. Mahomet tried it, and made the stoutest warriors 
of his court try it ; but seeing that no extraordinary effect 
was produced, he sent it back with the message that he pos- 
sessed many of as good, if not better temper. Scanderberg 
received the sword without a frown, used it in presence of 
the imperial messenger, in a way which showed his wonder- 
ful strength, and then dismissed the astonished official wijth 
these simple words, "Tell your master that though I sent 
him my scimitar, I did not send him my arm." 

His skill in making a head fly off with one blow of the 
sabre passed into a proverb. It was in this way that he 
killed the savage bull that ravaged the land of the Princess 
Mamise, his sister, and a wild boar, the terror of all the 
country. Scanderberg had determined to punish a certain 
Bailaban, who had been convicted of cruelties towards the 
Albanians. One day the brother and the nephew of his 
enemy were brought to him bound together. Transported 
with rage at the sight of them, and without permitting them 
to raise a hand, he cut them in two with one stroke of his 
weapon. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. 

The Elector of Saxony, Augustus II. — A German Phantom — That which 
falls on the ground is not always what we throw out of the window 
— The Chamberlains of the Emperor of Brazil — A Bath taken 
against the Grain — Maurice of Saxony — Mademoiselle Gauthier of 
the Comedie-Francaise — Metal Plates rolled up like Paper — The 
Game of Quintain — The Manor of the Comte de Foix — Froissart 
the Historian — The Fete de Noel — The Ass lifted by the Power 
of the Wrist — Man after the Ass — The Coup de Jarnac. 

One night, as Joseph I., Emperor of Germany, then only 
King of the Romans, was sleeping in his apartment in the 
palace at Venice, he was suddenly aroused by an unusual 
noise. It seemed to him that some one was entering his 
chamber, and he believed at first that one of his domestics 
had come in by mistake ; but he soon perceived that the 
sound was drawing nearer, and clearly distinguished the 
rattling of chains along the floor. All at once a terrible 
voice rang out: "Joseph, King of the Romans! I am a 
spirit that endures the pains of purgatory, and am sent by 
God to warn you to turn aside from the abyss with which 
your intimacy with the Elector of Saxony is about to hurl 
you. Renounce his friendship, or prepare yourself for 
eternal damnation 1" Here the clanking of the chains 
redoubled, and the awful voice continued — "You do not 
reply, Joseph ! Are you so wicked as to resist God ? Is 
the friendship of a man more precious to you than that of 
the Being to whom you owe all things? I leave you to 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. $T 

think of what you have to do ; in three days I will come to 
receive your answer, and if you persist in seeing the Elector 
of Saxony the ruin of both is certain." With these words 
the spectre disappeared. 

On the morrow, when the Elector Augustus II., who was 
then a guest at the court of Vienna, and who had a thousand 
reasons for cultivating the friendship of the King of the 
Romans, came into the apartment of the latter, his surprise 
was extreme. Joseph, whom he had left the preceding 
evening gay and full of mirth, now lay on his bed pale, weak, 
and trembling. " Listen a moment, cousin," said he, " and 
perhaps in the end you too will be filled with fear." And 
then he told the Elector the adventure of the preceding night. 

Augustus was not a man to be deceived by a gross 
imposture. He got his friend to promise silence as to what 
had happened, and to permit him to sleep in his chamber 
on the night of the promised visit. Accordingly on the third 
night the spectre returned, as it had promised, and cried 
out, " Joseph, Joseph, King of the Romans ! " Augustus, 
a man of herculean strength, returned a very unexpected 
answer. He marched straight up to the phantom, seized it, 
carried it to the window, and launched it into space, crying, 
" Return to purgatory whence you have come." 

It was a spectre — that is a vague, supernatural form, 
which Augustus threw out of the window. But what do 
you think fell to the ground ? Nothing less than a reverend 
Father Jesuit ! There is certainly a Providence watching 
over phantoms, for this one, notwithstanding his terrible 
fall, got off with only a broken thigh, as the Baron of Poell- 
nitz tells us in his book, " La Saxe Galante." One of the 
laity would certainly have lost both his legs and more in 
such an adventure. 



p2 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

But what was done as an act of vengeance by Augustus 
IL, was indulged in by another sovereign, Dom Pedro L, em- 
peror of Brazil, as a pleasant pastime. At Rio Janeiro, the 
carnival permits of a great number of practical jokes, of 
which the commonest is to squirt water over everybody one 
meets. To do this, passers-by often slip into houses to find 
their victims. Those who do not find this rough amuse- 
ment to their taste, have only to barricade their doors, but 
on the contrary, those who relish the giving and taking of a 
little fun, at this time leave their doors open, so that the first 
comer may enter, for during these holidays all social dis- 
tinctions are held in abeyance. The passer-by who has 
been wetted, or it may be drenched to the skin in this way, 
enters the house from which the " visitation" has come, and 
revenges himself on any one he meets. In taking their part 
in the popular amusements, the ladies made use of pretty 
little instruments, which discharged perfumed water. The 
emperor was passionately fond of this holiday horse-play ; 
and there was not a house he would not enter, if the 
proprietors had not taken care to exclude intruders. At the 
last festival which took place under his reign he was at his 
country house of Saint Christophe, and being on that 
account unable to gratify his taste for the favourite amuse- 
ment, but unwilling that the season should pass without his 
indulging in it, he hit upon an ingenious device. It is not 
said whether his idea was a premeditated one, or whether 
the notion came suddenly, when he was sailing in a small 
boat close by the shore, accompanied by two chamberlains, 
dressed in their most splendid uniforms, to do honour to 
their royal master. But be this as it may, the emperor sud- 
denly seized the unhappy courtiers by the scruff of the neck, 
one in each hand, and after holding them suspended for a 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. 93 

few seconds above the water, plunged them into it, one on 
each side of the boat. The shore was lined with multitudes 
of people watching the royal barge as it moved along ; and 
when the emperor was seen dipping his chamberlains, and 
thus showing his love ©f the popular holiday amusement, 
roars of laughter and loud applause came from the shore. 
But what appearance did the unhappy chamberlains make 
when pulled out of their unexpected bath? Of this the 
chronicle does not inform us. We are mentioning, as may 
be observed, examples of physical strength drawn from the 
highest ranks, but this is done advisedly, for among them 
muscular power is a greater distinction than among the 
classes whose nerves are strung by daily labour. It is no 
great distinction for a man to excel in the pursuit of that 
which he has made a profession. 

Having dealt with kings, we come to the sons of kings ; 
and first, to the son of the Elector to whom reference has 
already been made. This personage, who it may be stated was 
only the natural son of Augustus, was the famous Maurice, 
Count of Saxony, the hero of Fontenoy, and he inherited 
the physical vigour of his father, the only considerable 
legacy which descended to him. On the occasion of a cer- 
tain hunting expedition the Count, who had invited his 
friends to luncheon, and was made aware that the cork- 
screws had been forgotten, "What does it matter ?" said 
Maurice; and taking a long nail, for which he called, he 
twisted it round with his fingers, and with this extemporised 
implement opened half a dozen bottles. Among the hunt- 
ing train were many stout nobles, who tried to imitate the 
feat, but as none of them possessed the wonderful physical 
strength of the Count, their attempts were in vain. 

While residing in London, Maurice used to amuse him- 



94 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

self by rambling about in the streets. In one of these 
excursions a quarrel arose, from some cause or other, 
between him and one of the dustmen whose business it was 
to gather together and remove the mud, refuse, and filth of 
the metropolis. The Count, who was a skilful boxer, 
allowed his adversary to approach, and as soon as the man 
came within his reach, seized him by the head, threw 
him up into the air with all his strength, and let him drop 
right into the middle of his own mud-cart. 

It is well known that this same son of Augustus and the 
Countess of Kcenigsmark could break the strongest horse- 
shoes with his hands. Having on one occasion stopped at 
a village during fair-time, to have his horses shod, he got a 
number of new shoes, of which he cracked five or six as if 
they had been glass. The farrier, not to be outdone, took 
the six-franc piece which the Count had given him, and after 
striking it a blow with his chisel, broke it in two with his 
fingers. Maurice gave the farrier another similar piece of 
money, which he treated in the same way, saying " Mon- 
seigneur, you see that your crowns meet no better fate than 
my horse-shoes." On looking at the broken pieces, how- 
ever, Maurice perceived the deception, but instead of being 
angry, walked away, rubbing his hands, highly delighted 
that in physical strength he was still unrivalled. 

He did, at last, meet with one who resisted him, and, 
astonishing to say, his opponent was a woman. That a 
woman should be able to hold out against Maurice of 
Saxony is what one can hardly believe, and the thing seems 
all the more improbable seeing that the lady — Mademoiselle 
Gauthier, an actress who belonged to the Comedie Franchise 
— did hot fear to meet him. The contest was who should 
put down the other's wrist, and though the Count won with 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. 95 

difficulty, he owned that of all the people who had striven 
with him in this exercise, Mademoiselle Gauthier had held 
out against him longer than any other. 

The power of this lady's arm was something far beyond 
the common. She could with her fingers roll up a piece of 
silver plate with as much ease as the renowned Englishman, 
Topham. It was, however, less on account of her wonderful 
physical strength than of her singular career that Madlle. 
Gauthier demands attention. Born in 1692, she made her 
first appearance upon the stage at the age of seventeen, and 
achieved great success. To the advantages of unusual 
charms, she added many accomplishments. She painted 
miniatures with great taste and power, and wrote verses 
which were by no means without merit. Up to the age of 
thirty years she led a life of luxury and pleasure; plunging, 
as she herself says, into une trier de delices, when one day, 
the anniversary of her birth, by the merest chance she hap- 
pened to enter a church, and heard mass. It was said that 
during the service she was so deeply touched that she left 
with the fixed determinajtion of changing her conduct and 
profession. On the 20th of January, 1725, she took the veil 
of the Carmelite nuns at Lyons, under the name of " Sister 
Augustine of Pity." And even as up to this period she had 
been wholly devoted to a dissipated life, so now she showed 
an equal ardour for religion. The convert lived for thirty- 
two years in the cloister, without for a single instant regret- 
ting the world, so brilliant but so hollow, which she had 
abandoned. Gossip has it that repentance and piety had 
but little to do with her conversion, and that a love affair 
which did not prosper was the sole cause of the sudden 
change. 

But, quitting the elevated spheres of royalty and religion. 



96 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

our only difficulty in endeavouring to collect a series of 
curious facts is one of choice amidst a multitude of 
instances. For, descending a few degrees from the throne, 
we find ourselves having to do with a nobility which 
dedicated itself by tradition and by taste to all bodily exer- 
cises, and, in short, bestowed more care in developing 
physical strength than in cultivating intellect. The Mare'chal 
de Tavannes (1509 — 1573), in his memoirs shows us the 
youth of his time competing with each other most keenly in 
leaping, running, and throwing the bar. And this was not 
from want of occupation, as one would at first be tempted 
to believe. For gentlemen, peace was not always an in- 
terval of idleness, but rather a pause between two campaigns, 
which the most prudent turned to good account in perfecting 
themselves in the trade of war, and in accustoming them- 
selves to dangers to which they might be subjected in the 
future. " They employed their time," says this general, " in 
leaping, wrestling, and in sham fights, familiarising them- 
selves with perils in peace that they might not fear them in 
war." The end which they proposed to themselves was not 
so much to increase their bodily strength as to render them- 
selves inaccessible to fear. Those who neglected this pre- 
paration for camp life had often cause to repent it. Entering 
the army without training, they were easily beaten, " as the 
French were formerly by the Italians, and as the Italians 
now are by the French." 

They followed the example of the Turks, who being in 
the habit of striking upon each other's bucklers, acquired 
great strength in the arms. From the development of the 
body to which the Turks attained, arose, without doubt, 
the proverb, "As strong as a Turk." Western nations, in 
order to get their hands used to it, practised the game of 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. 97 

quintaine or quintain, which consisted in running at and 
striking an artificial head, made of wood or pasteboard. It 
was thus that they strengthened their arms ; " for," says the 
Marshal de Tavannes, "it is by their arms that they 
acquire and defend kingdoms." That it was thus that- the 
strength of man was increased by daily exercises, Froissart 
explains to us in his curious chronicles. 

In the south of France lived a rich, powerful, and great 
noble, always surrounded by a numerous following of knights, 
squires, and pages. Froissart was for some time his guest. 
His disposition was far from being mild, as was proved by 
his conduct towards his young son, detailed by the historian. 
The Comte de Foix lived in the country of Bdarn through- 
out the winter, which is there very rigorous, without a 
fire, or with only a very small one, with which his court 
were by no means satisfied. However, on Christmas Day, 
1388, having after dinner ascended into his gallery, which 
was reached by a great staircase of four-and-twenty steps, 
he looked at the fire, then burning very low, and com- 
plained of it to those who stood around him. " It is only 
right to say," says Froissart, " that it was freezing very hard 
that day, and was exceedingly cold." " What a miserable 
fire for this time of the year," exclaimed the count. One of 
the lords in attendance heard and paid special attention 
to the count's complaint. This was no other than Ernaulton 
of Spain, who a short time before had done marvels at the 
siege of Lourdes, striking down with his hatchet all who 
came within his reach, and leaving dead upon the field 
every one whom he struck. a For he was a long tall man," 
says the gossiping Froissart, " big in his limbs and by no 
means burdened with flesh." Ernaulton had seen from the 
windows of the gallery, which looked down upon the court, 

G 



98 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

a number of asses that had arrived laden with wood for the 
service of the castle. To seize the largest of these quad- 
rupeds, wooden burden and all, to swing them lightly 
upon his shoulders, to mount the stairs, and, breaking 
through the crowd of knights that surrounded the fire-place, 
to tumble into the hearth upon the fire-dogs both the wood 
and the ass, the latter with his feet in the air, was for 
Ernaulton the work of a few seconds. The coup de force 
was wonderful ; and the stroke of wit of tumbling the ass as 
well as the wood into the fire was wonderful, too, in its 
own way. The feat was almost as great as that of Milo of 
Croton, who carried an ox on his shoulders into the stage of 
Olympia. Both the host and his guests made great re- 
joicing over it, and "marvelled at the strength of the squire, 
who without any help had lifted such a great burden, and 
carried it up the stairs." 

But that which was only a means of amusement during 
peace became a most useful expedient in the time of war. 
If, instead of the ass, a two-footed animal "without 
feathers" were thus caught up and carried off, without 
being the object of such rude humour as that of Ernaulton, 
the action might be one of the greatest importance. 

" Come hither," said the Marquis of Pescare, Governor 
of the Duchy of Milan for the Emperor Charles V., to a 
servant named Lupon, " I wish to be accurately informed 
of the state of the French army. Make your way to the 
enemy's camp, and try if you can learn anything." Lupon 
was, as we learn from Paul Jove, quoted by Simon Gou- 
lart in his "Tresor d'Histoires Admirables" (16 10), "A 
man so vigorous and light of foot that, with a sheep upon 
his shoulders, he could distance any competitor who tried to 
race with him," Lupon thought long of what he should do ; 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. IOI 

then, deciding upon his course, he came close to one of the 
French sentinels, who was not upon his guard. Although 
the man was of great stature, and stout in proportion, Lupon 
turned him up and threw him upon his shoulders. The poor 
fellow struggled hard, fighting with all the strength at his 
command, and shouting at the top of his voice for some one 
to come to him, but Lupon got him saddled upon his neck, 
and then set out with him at a great pace. He never 
dropped his burden till he reached his own camp, when he 
tumbled the sentinel at the feet of the Marquis, who, 
" having laughed his fill at the stratagem, and having also 
learned from the mouth of the sentinel, so pleasantly 
brought to camp upon this singular two-legged jennet, what 
was the condition of the French camp, at once ordered an 
assault." 

Francis of Vivonne, Lord of Chasteigneraye, who lived 
at the court of Francis I., was endowed with a strength not 
less remarkable. He seized a bull by the horns and stopped 
him, after the example of that ancient athlete, Polydamas of 
Thessalia, who held the animal firmly by the hind legs. 
Chasteigneraye excelled in all bodily exercises, especially in 
running and wrestling. He was accounted the most accom- 
plished master of the sword at the French court, which was 
not surprising, as he made fencing his chief occupation, 
forming his " style " after the Italian masters, then believed 
to be the most skilful in the world. He was so clever 
as a horseman, that in the game of the ring, he threw 
his lance into the air, and caught it again many times con- 
secutively before raising the ring. But he shone principally 
in combats corps d corps, and devoted himself to encounters 
on foot with the lords of his day, who attempted to revive 
in France the gladiatorial combats of the Romans. In 



102 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

these deadly fights the great stature and strength of Chas- 
teigneraye gave him almost always the advantage. His 
father, Andre of Vivonne, Grand Seneschal of Poitou, would 
no doubt have had him at his birth plunged into the river 
Styx, that his members might thereby receive an invincible 
temper; but as geographers had not then discovered the 
topographical position of that river, he had recourse to 
other expedients, and it is reported nourished his son 
from his earliest infancy on food with which powders of 
steel, gold, and iron were mixed. Brantome, who records 
this fact, adds that the Grand Seneschal was let into this 
secret by a great physician of Naples, who vaunted its effi- 
cacy. Was it to this singular treatment, or to his natural 
disposition, that Chasteigneraye owed that strength which 
was the admiration of his contemporaries ? This much is 
certain, that it was by his physical advantages that he so 
rapidly made his way at court. Unfortunately his boundless 
confidence and presumption were fatal to him in the end,, 
another point in which he resembled certain famous athletes 
of antiquity. 

Contemporary with Chasteigneraye there resided at the 
court of Francis I. Guy Chabot, Lord of Monlieu, and 
afterwards of Jarnac. Like his countryman and friend 
Chasteigneraye, he commenced his career as enfant (Phon* 
neur, i.e., page to the king, and made a brilliant figure at 
court, but the skill and boldness of Frangois de Vivonne 
eclipsed his fame, a circumstance, however, which did not 
prevent the friends from measuring themselves against each 
other in the salles d'armes, and in the tournaments. 
" Chabot," says a chronicler of the times, " as a courtier 
and lady's man paid greater attention to the arts of dress 
than to the practice of arms and war." 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES, 103 

Certain reports which touched the honour of the Chabot- 
Jarnacs having been spread abroad at court, the Dauphin, 
subsequently Henry II., gave further currency to them, and 
they came at last to be mentioned in the country. Charles 
de Chabot, the father of Guy, who was thus maligned, imme- 
diately set out, accompanied by his son, to Compiegne, where 
the court then sojourned, for the purpose of obtaining redress. 
Both threw themselves on their knees before the king, and 
demanded justice. Guy Chabot summoned the originator of 
the calumnious reports to declare himself, and asserted that 
those who had repeated the rumours lied in their throats. 
The Dauphin said never a word, but Chasteigneraye, who had 
embraced the cause of Diana of Poictiers, and consequently 
of the Dauphin, in opposition to the party of the Duchesse 
d'Etampes and of the king, for which side Chabot had 
declared, took all the blame upon himself, in the hope that 
in fighting the Dauphin's quarrel he should win the favour 
of the future king. He accepted all the consequences 
of his falsehood, relying on his strength and skill in 
sword-play. A duel was agreed upon, but Francis I. 
would never authorise it during his life-time, and conse- 
quently it did not take place till after his decease and the 
succession of his son, Henri II. The lists were opened at 
St. Germain, on the 10th of July, 1547. Both combatants, in 
accordance with the fashion of the time, implored the help 
of heaven. They chanted masses, and visited churches, as 
if heaven could be interested in such wretched quarrels. 
Chasteigneraye advanced to the fight confident of victory, 
and, indeed, with this expectation he had caused a banquet to 
be spread in his tent in order to celebrate his triumph. Guy 
Chabot appeared to have at first the worst of the battle, 
and, indeed, at one moment seemed on the point of falling. 



104 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

This, however, was only a feint, for, dodging downwards, he 
delivered two thrusts on his enemy's left ham, this blow being 
ever afterwards known as the coup de Jarnac. Chastei- 
gneraye fell, and found himself at the mercy of Guy Chabot, 
who offered him to the king, if Henry desired to beg the 
life of his champion, but seeing that Chasteigneraye made a 
movement to get free, " Do not stir," cried the victor, " or 
I shall kill you." "Kill me then," cried Chasteigneraye; 
suffering not so much from his wound as from the injury 
which had been inflicted upon his self-love. He was all 
the less willing to survive his disgrace from the fact that 
he had made so sure of victory ; but as the historian says, 
" God, who watches over all things, arranged that he who 
was the conqueror in anticipation should remain the van- 
quished in fact." Foaming with rage, Chasteigneraye tore 
off the dressing of his wound, and expired blaspheming. 

The people, who detest calumniators and braggarts, 
vowed themselves in favour of the cause of Chabot, which 
was, indeed, the right one. They came in vast numbers from 
Paris to Saint Germain to be present at the duel of the two 
courtiers, and the whole mob of scholars, artisans, and 
" loafers " rushed to the tent of Chasteigneraye, the van- 
quished man, " as on a fallen city," says the Marechal de 
Vielleville, in his "Memoirs." The supper set out was 
carried off raw by the porters and lackeys, while the multi- 
tude, "overturning the pots and saucepans, scattering the 
soups and entrees," devoured everything that remained. 
The silver plate, and the rich services, which the intending 
host had borrowed from the principal mansions of the court, 
" disappeared under the labours of the robbers, amidst the 
most fearful confusion." The archers of the guard, advancing 
to stop the pillage, had the greatest difficulty in dispersing 



SOME HISTORICAL PERSONAGES. IOJ 

the crowd that had invaded the tent and banquet-pavilion, 
and after the feast the multitude were favoured by way of 
dessert with a plentiful application of the halberd and baton. 
"Thus," exclaims the Marechal, "passes earthly glory, 
which ever deceives its votaries, especially when they under- 
take to do anything contrary to right and justice." 



BOOK II. 



BODILY SKILL. 



CHAPTER I. 

RUNNERS AND RUNNING IN ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE 

AGES. 

Utility of Running in Ancient Times— The Swift-footed Achilles — How 
Running was esteemed — Different Kinds of Running— Greek and 
Roman Runners — The Pace — Opinion of the Ancients upon the 
Influence of the Exercise— The Endeavour to Abolish it — The 
Grand Turk's Runners, their Singular Accoutrement — The Abbe 
Nicquet — The Runner of the Polignacs. 

In the earliest ages running was of the most marvellous 
use to man, for it was by means of it that he was enabled to 
capture some animals, and escape the attacks of others. In 
those days this was the only use to which men applied 
their swiftness, and when, at a later period, war took the 
place of the hunting of animals, and became the principal 
occupation of the human race, speed was again of the 
greatest importance in running down a weaker enemy, or 
escaping from a stronger. After the invention of arms of 
long range, agility became less necessary, and in our time 
victory no longer depends on suppleness of legs, for artillery 
mows down without mercy, as the reaper mows the ripe 
wheat. Achilles, with his swift feet, would in our day be 
but a pitiful personage, and though his speed might enable 



108 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

him to win a flat race at a country fair, as a soldier it would 
avail him nothing. He would be picked up and forwarded 
by the iron road to the theatre of his exploits, like a simple 
parcel; his swiftness would not enable him to escape the 
unseen bullet, and he would be as likely as the merest raw 
recruit to come back from the battle-field minus one of his 
boasted limbs, and pass the remainder of his days a pen- 
sioner on the bounty of the state. 

On account of the uses to which formerly it could be 
put in time of war, running was regarded as one of the 
exercises most becoming a free man ; it was cultivated in 
the gymnasiums ; it had its place in the public games, espe- 
cially at Olympus ; and it formed the chief feature of all 
fetes. It was with this exercise, regarded as the most noble, 
that all the solemn games commenced, wrestling holding the 
second place. It is likewise with this that Homer opens, 
when he describes the games of strength and skill; it is 
racing that fires the enthusiasm of Pindar. The art of run- 
ning was held in equal honour by the historians, Thucy- 
dides, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Diodorus of Sicily, and 
Pausanias, who date events by Olympiads, and do not omit 
to add the name of the athletes who at these solemn celebra- 
tions bore away the prizes. Such was the antiquity and utility 
of the exercise, that victorious competitors in the other 
games were not received with the favour which was accorded 
to successful runners. 

There were many varieties of foot-races, but as the 
distinctions between them consisted only in the different 
lengths of the courses traversed, it will suffice to speak 
particularly of but one variety. There was first that in 
which the competitors went once the length of the stadium 
or course, which at Olympia was six hundred feet ; secondly, 



RUNNERS AND RUNNING. 109 

there was a diaulos, or double course, in which the athletes, 
after having reached the goal, returned ; thirdly, there was 
the dolichos, in regard to which opinion is much divided. 
According to some it was seven courses of the stadium, to 
others that it was twenty courses, which it is difficult to 
believe. 

This last feat too frequently repeated resulted in the loss 
of life, as in the case of Ladas of Lacedaemonia, who fell 




Ancient Foot Runners. (From a vase in the Berlin Museum.) 

dead on arriving at the goal, after having run the dolichos. 
He attained such celebrity in this department of athletics that 
it was said of him, while language was still in its early exu- 
berance, " his feet left no print on the sand." The Greek 
Anthology contains two epigrams concerning him. "Has 
Ladas started? Has Ladas flown across the course? He 
goes so quickly it is impossible to say." The other was 
relative to the statue of this athlete, the work of the famous 
sculptor Myron, of whom we have already spoken. " Such 
as thou wert, when darting forward, thou didst skim the earth 
with thy feet, such, O Ladas ! still living, Myron has cast 



IIO WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

thee in bronze, giving to thy whole body the life that thrills 
to the touch of the Olympic crown. The pulses of hope 
are beating in your lips, we see the heaving of your quick- 
breathing chest. Perhaps the bronze is about to throw itself 
forward toward the crown, the pedestal even will not hold it 
back." 

Greece produced excellent runners, of whom the most 
highly esteemed came from the island of Crete. If it were 
necessary to enumerate all those who distinguished them- 
selves in this exercise, a volume would not contain the 
names. But among the celebrities, the most famous beyond 
comparison were Hermogenes of Xanthos, in Lycia, who 
won eight wreaths in twelve years, and was known by the 
flattering surname of the " Horse ;" Lasthenes, the Theban, 
who beat one of these quadrupeds in crossing the Choroneus 
at Thebes; and Polymnestor, the young goat-herd of Miletus, 
who caught a hare on foot, and who, in consequence of this 
feat, was sent by his master to the Olympic games. Alex- 
ander the Great had a runner, Philonides, who .ran in nine 
hours the distance between Sicyon and Elis. 

" The starting-place and the goal are the only points at 
which the young athlete allows himself to be seen, never 
in the course of his race," says a Greek poet, in singing 
the praises of a certain Arias of Tarsus, in Cilicia. The 
agility of the athlete could not be complimented in a more 
delicate and striking manner. And let us not forget the 
soldier who ran to announce the victory of Marathon, and, 
exhausted with fatigue, dropped dead at the feet of the 
magistrates of Athens as soon as he had signified the import 
of his message. Or that Euchidas of Plataea who came 
to find at Delphos the sacred fire necessary for the sacrifices, 
to replace that which the Persians had quenched; on the 



RUNNERS AND RUNNING. Ill 

same day, before the sinking of the sun, he had accom- 
plished his mission and returned. He had walked one 
thousand stadia, but he expired as soon as he had ac- 
complished his mission. 

The Romans were not less distinguished in this respect 
than the Greeks. Pliny speaks of certain athletes of his 
time, who ran in the circus the distance of 160,000 paces; 




Running with Arms. (From a cup in the Museum of Berlin.) 

he mentions, also, a young man who ran 75,000. But 
the feats Pliny mentions are all the more astonishing, 
seeing that when Tiberius proceeded to Germany after 
his son Drusus, who was dying, he could not arrive at 
his destination in less than twenty-four hours, though the 
distance was only 200,000 paces, and the Emperor, as we 
are justified in supposing, did not travel afoot. 

The runners, like all the other athletes, were naked ; 
but there was a kind of race in which the competitors 
appeared armed, not from head to foot, but at least with 
helmet and shield. These racers were called hoglitodromot 



112 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

— heavy armed runners. Another variety of contest was 
the torch-race, which was run either on foot or on horse- 
back, and consisted either in bearing the lighted torch 
throughout the entire race, and coming to the goal with- 
out having allowed it to go out, or in handing it lighted to 
a second runner, who in ton transferred it in the same state 
to a third, and so on. 




Torch Race. (From a painted vase in the Hamilton collection.) 

Xenophon remarks that athletes who devoted themselves 
to running were generally remarkable for their great limbs 
and their narrow shoulders, the opposite being the case with 
the wrestlers. 

The racers of antiquity who purposed competing at the 
Olympic games, were extremely careful that nothing should 
interfere with the rapidity of their pace ; and with this 
object they paid special attention to the condition of their 
spleen, believing that the unhealthy condition of that organ 
renders the whole body heavy and the breath short. When 



RUNNERS AND RUNNING. "3 

any one on these occasions found himself less agile than 
usual, he attributed his lassitude at once to the bad con- 
dition of his spleen. Plautus, in one of his works, brings 
upon the scene a slothful servant, who accuses his spleen in 
order to excuse his laziness. "Ah, here is a racer whose 
limbs fail him!" cries he. "Heaven! I am lost. My 
spleen is disturbed, and swells up to my chest I shall 




Torch Race. (After Gerhard.) 

never breathe again. I shall make but a sorry player upon 
the flute." 

Some athletes, in order to be freed once for all of such 
a source of anxiety, sought to rid themselves altogether from 
an organ which caused so much trouble, and called medicine 
to their aid. Among the nostrums employed for this pur- 
pose were certain herbs, to which was attributed, rightly or 
wrongly, the power of dissolving the spleen. The only 
result of using these herbs was probably to diminish its size, 
by expelling humours which had grown in it. Pliny speaks 
of a plant, equisetum, a decoction of which the runners drank 
for three consecutive days, and after having been without 

H 



114 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

food for twenty-four hours. There were many othef 
specifics for dispelling the impurities of the spleen, of which 
Ccelius Aurelianus, and Marcellus the empiric, speak; and 
the runners did not fail to apply to them. 

Surgery offered other means, more efficacious but also 
more extreme, for the attainment of the athlete's object, viz., 
the removal of the organ by the knife or by fire. As to the 
former operation, ancient physicians do not say whether it 
ever proved successful ; but if we may believe history, the 
removal of the spleen has been accomplished without sacrific- 
ing the life of the patient. The celebrated empiric Leonardo 
Fioravanti is said to have cured a young Greek suffering 
from tumour of the spleen at Palermo, in 1549, by cutting 
out the organ, which weighed several pounds. 

The application of fire was a less dangerous practice. 
In the time of Hippocrates it was the custom to apply above 
the region of the spleen eight or ten dried mushrooms, which 
were then set on fire, and produced an equal number of 
sores. Others cauterised the same region with an instru- 
ment having three teeth, which were made red hot, and 
which burned right through the skin. Nevertheless all this 
does not prove that the ancients affected the actual substance 
of the spleen, and their writings furnish no information on 
the subject. But we have evidence which tends to show the 
probable success of this operation, in a statement by a Ger- 
man physician, Godfrey Mcebius, who lived in the seven- 
teenth century. He had seen in the town ,of Halberstadt 
a courier in the service of Count Tilly, who attributed his 
surprising speed solely to the operation which a surgeon had 
performed upon him in the region of the spleen. According 
to this courier's account he was first put to sleep by means of 
a narcotic, and the operator haying made an incision in his 



RUNNERS AND RUNNING* II5 

side, then burned the spleen with a red-hot iron. Moebius 
saw the cicatrice which still marked the seat of the wound. 
Five other individuals had been treated in the same manner, 
and at the same time as the courier, and only in one case did 
the operation result in the death of the patient. 

It is believed that those who among the Turks adopt the 
profession of couriers are subjected to the fire rather than 
the knife treatment. Formerly the Grand Turk always 
maintained eighty or a hundred runners, who were named 
peichs (lackeys or footmen), and who were generally natives 
of Persia. The Persians were to him what the Basques were 
in France to the Grand Seigneurs before the Revolution — very 
willing and very swift messengers. The former ran on before 
their master when he travelled, and capered with wonderful 
agility withoufe^apparently finding it necessary to stop and 
take breath. To amuse the Sultan still more, as soon as the 
procession had reached the open country they returned to 
the side of the Grand Seigneur, and ran backwards before 
him, bowing their heads with, as the historians of the six- 
teenth century say, many antics and flourishes. All along 
the road they continually cried, Allah Deicherin—" ! God pre- 
serve the Sultan in power and in prosperity." 

The ancient Turkish couriers always ran with bare feet, 
which were so hard and destitute of feeling, that they are 
said to have had themselves shod, like horses, with light iron 
shoes. To render the resemblance between them and 
horses more complete, they always carried in their mouths 
balls of silver, pierced with holes, and champed these as 
the quadruped does his bit. Further, their belts and 
garters were furnished with little bells, which tinkled very 
agreeably wherever they went. About the end of the 
sixteenth and in the seventeenth century, they ceased to 

H 2 



Il6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

carry the balls of silver in their mouths, and began to 
wear coverings on their feet. Besides their pay, they received 
two complete suits of clothes every year. Their costume 
consisted of an Albanian cassock of damask of many colours 
or of striped satin, and a large belt of silk enriched with 
gold, in which they carried their poniard, the handle of 
which was of ivory and the sheath of the skin of some rare 
fish. They also wore very long stockings, like those gene- 
rally used at the time by the Turks, as well as a rude kind 
of shoes. Upon their heads they had high bonnets covered 
with silver leaf, from which waved enormous plumes of 
ostrich feathers. In one hand each carried his damascened 
hatchet, with blade and hammer on opposite sides, and in 
the other hand a bag full of comfits, with which they kept 
their mouths moist while running. In this costume they 
everywhere accompanied the Grand Seigneur, or conveyed 
his messages as far as he pleased to send them. As soon 
as they had received their orders, away they went, leaping 
and capering among the crowd with the agility of deer, cry- 
ing with all their might, " Sauli, saulif" "take care, take 
care," and rushed on night and day with astonishing swift- 
ness, taking no repose until they had delivered the message 
entrusted to them. 

If they had more fatigue to undergo than their comrades 
the vlachrars, horse-couriers, they were not, like them, fol- 
lowed by the curses of the people along their route. Indeed, 
the latter, as soon as their animals were exhausted with 
fatigue, were allowed by government to lay hands on the 
first fresh horses they met, whether the property of Christian, 
Jew, or Turk. A vlachrar meeting a peasant mounted on a 
fresh animal, could compel him to dismount, and taking his 
place gallop away on his errand. As the poor countryman 



RUNNERS AND RUNNING. II? 

was prohibited from removing the panting steed which the 
courier left behind, his only resource was to follow his 
spoiler on foot and try to make an arrangement with him 
for ready money. Often the courier urged on his horse till 
he broke down from sheer exhaustion, and then, having 



<^^2*1> 




Peich, or Runner of the Grand Turk. Fifteenth Century., 
(After B. de Vigenere.) 

exchanged him for the first fresh and stout animal he could 
see, mounted and rode off at full speed, followed by the 
wild and furious curses of the distracted proprietor. With a 
privilege such as this the messengers of the sultan might 
have been expected to traverse enormous distances ; but they 
took their ease, travelling only during the day and reposing 
at night. They did not even journey with the speed of the 
couriers of other nations — the Abbd Nicquet, for example, 
the swiftest traveller of his time (the sixteenth century), who 



Il8 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKTIX. 

reached Rome from Paris in six days four hours, although 
the distance was 350 leagues. 

The Turkish foot-runners were swifter and more careful 
than the horsemen. They could go to and fro between 
Constantinople and Adrianople in two days and two nights, 
that is to say, at the rate of forty leagues, or about one 
hundred and twenty miles, in twenty-four hours. One of 
these runners made a bet that he would journey the distance 
from one to the other of these towns between two suns, 
in other words, in twenty-four hours, and accomplished the 
feat, though he had to contend against the enervating heats 
of the month of August 



CHAPTER II. 

COURIERS OP THE ARISTOCRACY IN ENGLISH AND ELSE- 
WHERE — MODERN COURIERS. 

Posting previously to 1789 — Running like a Basque — The Lands of the 
Mountains and the Lands of the Plains — The Lackeys of other 
Days — English Runners — Runners of the Austrian Nobility — 
Flowers and s Tinsel-^The Zagal of Spain — The Aristocracy ctf 
Scotland — The Man-horse — The Duke of Queensberry and his 
Livery — The Escort of the King of Saxony — A Runner on White 
Horses — Indefatigable Walkers — Captain Barclay and his Achieve- 
ments. 

Formerly, as already hinted, the nobility maintained cou- 
riers, who not only carried messages for them into and from 
town, but also ran in front of the carriages when travelling, and 
rendered assistance in the difficult parts of the road. Prior 
to 1789 the postal service was not organised in the same 
excellent way as at the present time, for railways and mac- 
adamised roads were still unknown, and the superintendence 
of roads and bridges did not exist even in name. Those 
who had not couriers contented themselves with remaining 
at home without news ; or if they did travel, they too often 
found themselves sticking fast in a rut, shouting for assist- 
ance, which did not come. Travelling was a luxury in 
which the rich indulged, in order to distinguish themselves 
from the less privileged classes. What facilitated the 
labour of the couriers was, that the roads being bad, the 
carriages advanced with difficulty, as a rule, at the rate of 
about five miles an hour. Nevertheless, everybody could 



120 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

not indulge in this painful exercise, and good couriers 
were rare. 

In France this office was most frequently filled by 
Basques, which has given rise to the proverbial expression, 
"To run like a Basque." In general mountaineers are 
swifter than the inhabitants of level countries. The quality 
is one which depends to a great extent upon the configu- 
ration of the land ; and it is well known that Navarre and 
Biscay are hardly what can be called flat countries. The 
ancient Cretans were celebrated, as we have already said, 
for their swiftness in running ; a fact which is not surprising, 
seeing that from their infancy they were accustomed to 
mountainous tracts, impracticable for horses or vehicles. 
The same difference is to be remarked among savage 
peoples, whose ability in running depends upon whether 
they dwell among hills or on the plains. Lescarbot, in 
vaunting the agility of the natives of Nouvelle-France, 
notices how those who are reared on the heights excel in 
swiftness their countrymen who inhabit the plains. The 
former, he says, breathe a purer and invigorating air, and 
live on better food ; the latter cultivate low and unhealthy 
lands, with a thick, heavy atmosphere. He also mentions 
certain tribes on the coast of Malabar, who had acquired 
great celebrity for "twisting and turning their bodies in 
such an extraordinary fashion, that they seemed to have no 
bones ;" and who were formidable opponents in a skirmish, 
their suppleness being such that they could advance and retire 
with the rapidity of lightning, giving their enemies no oppor- 
tunity of injuring them. It is true that to arrive at such a 
degree of skill it was necessary to assist nature, and from the 
age of seven they paid special attention to their muscles, 
which they took care to rub continually with oil of sesamum. 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 121 

The Basques also exercised their legs from an early age ; 
and when grown up developed their running powers by 
assiduous practice. They were admirably adapted to act as 
couriers, as they did under the nobility of the ancien regime. 
In Rabelais, Grand-gousier despatched "the Basque, his 
lackey, to seek Gargantua in all haste." This proves that 
under Francis I., the natives of this country were employed 
in services which demanded the greatest bodily activity. 
" From the country of Beam," says an author of the end of 
the sixteenth century, "come lackeys the best fitted for 
running that one could wish." The names of " lackey" and 
Basque were almost synonymous in the ancient French 
language, as well as in the usages of that state of society 
which disappeared at the Revolution ; and the function 
of the lackey consisted specially in running in the service 
of the master of the household. Lower class people who 
wished to give themselves the airs of persons of quality, 
used to pretend to have a Basque in their service. It is to 
these that Henri Estienne alludes, when he says in his 
"Dialogues on the French Language," "And when you 
write in any place, even though it be but a little note, and 
you may not have an express porter, place the letter in the 
care of the first one you meet, and then you ought to say 
that you ' have despatched your Basque, who runs like the 
wind.'" 

In England, as an aristocratic country, the services of 
these swift-footed officials were in great request. The quali- 
ties requisite were suppleness of body and robustness of con- 
stitution; and the runners were, like jockeys, obliged to take 
every precaution to maintain them. Their mode of living 
was in accordance with a severe regimen. In travelling they 
always carried a staff five or six feet in length, terminated by 



122 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

a hollow ball of metal, generally of silver, which served at 
once as larder and cellar, for it contained their provender 
— hard boiled eggs and a little white wine. This courier's 
staff of the English gentry is without doubt the origin of 
the silver-headed canes which is the badge of office of certain 
domestics in great houses even in the present day. 

The traditional costume of these running footmen con- 
sisted of a jacket like that of a jockey, breeches of white 
cloth, and a cap of silk or velvet. In a manuscript dated 
1780, and quoted in Notes and Queries, is the following 
passage : — " The couriers drank white wine and ate hard 
eggs. I saw one some years ago. He had a little white 
wine in the large silver apple which terminated his long cane, 
and which could be opened. In mentioning his feats, he 
told me he had often run sixty miles a day, at the rate of 
seven miles an hour. Upon sloping ground he could keep 
in advance of a carriage with six horses, but on the level he 
had sometimes to make a sign with his baton to the coach- 
man to entreat him to pull up, and go at a slower pace." A 
good runner was indeed usually able to travel seven miles 
an hour when necessary ; but in over-running himself thus, 
he was soon fatigued, and consequently was unable to do a 
long journey. 

In Austria, at the court and among the nobles, it was 
also usual to keep domestics for the like purpose. An 
English lady, who ought to have been accustomed to the 
sight, on visiting Vienna about the end of the eighteenth 
century, could not restrain her indignation at what she con- 
sidered a cruel system. " The unfortunate creatures," she 
says, "always run before the carriages of their masters, in 
the town and in the suburbs. It is with difficulty they can 
bear up for three or four years against such a life, and gene- 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 12 J 

rally they die of consumption. Fatigue and sickness are 
depicted upon their thin and fleshless faces ; yet, like victim* 
prepared for sacrifice, they are crowned with flowers, and 
ornamented with tinsel of all kinds." 

For such and other baubles and trifles, embroidery, lace, 
ruffles, fringes of gold and silver, and small bells that 
tinkled with a silver sound, all of them had a taste, and they 
adhered to them persistently. Racing suggests something 
light and graceful as the appropriate costume j it recalls to 
us the sylph or the butterfly — an animated flower, passing 
its life amid other flowers. If the reader has travelled in 
Spain he must remember the Zagal, who is assort of coach 
conductor, and accompanies the diligences, to hurry on the 
relays, to watch the baggage, and render assistance in diffi- 
cult parts of the road. He is an imp arrayed in cloth of 
blue, white, red, and orange stripes; and from the head to the 
feet is a mass of silk and velvet tufts, and buttons of filigree 
work ; fantastic arabesques ornament the middle of his back, 
and his vest is maroon or tobacco-colour. The runners 
appertaining to the nobility in England and Germany were 
decked in similar finery, which on a young and lithe 
figure looked well enough. Unfortunately, however, Time-^ 
the most indefatigable of all runners — advanced upon them 
as upon all others, and it was a distressing spectacle to see 
men with grey heads tricked out in habiliments becoming 
enough during a youth that had long departed, and trying to 
contend with quadrupeds for the palm in running. 

In Scotland, until the end of the eighteenth century, 
nothing was known of carriages with four wheels, and they 
used for travelling hired carriages, closed and mounted on two 
wheels, the body hanging, as it were, between the shafts. Gen- 
tlemen alone had carriages drawn by four or six horses, but as 



124 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

vehicles frequently sank into the mire, owing to the dreadful 
state of the roads, it was necessary to have recourse to the 
help of the footmen, who, however, were employed specially 
to carry letters and despatches. In the districts surrounding 
many of the great Scottish houses one may to the present day 
still hear many a story told of the wonderful speed of these 
domestics. Thus, the Earl of Home, who resided at The 
Hirsel, in the county of Berwick, having important business 
which required immediate attention, entrusted the affair to 
his courier. Coming down from his bed-room next morning 
the earl perceived his man calmly sleeping upon a bench. 
Enraged at what seemed to be the wilful disobedience of his 
servant, the earl was about to have him punished, when it 
appeared that the courier had since the previous evening 
gone to Edinburgh, delivered his master's message, and 
returned while it was yet early morning. The distance 
between the two places is thirty-five miles. The Duke of 
Lauderdale, in the reign of Charles II., gave a great dinner 
at his castle of Tbirlestane, near Lauder, but as the cloth was 
being laid it was discovered that an essential article was 
wanting. This was an annoying circumstance, all the more 
so as what was required was at another residence of the duke, 
Lethington Castle, fifteen miles off, near Haddington. A 
courier was, however, at once despatched, and was back again 
before dinner was over with the article mentioned, although 
he had to traverse a country broken up by hill and dale. 
We cannot help mentioning another case, that of a courier 
who was sent from Glasgow to Edinburgh in order to find a 
doctor, or rather, it should be said, two doctors, and accom* 
plished his journey as if he travelled on wings. On his way 
he was asked how his master was, when, without stopping, he 
cried out as he ran, "My master is not yet dead, but he 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 125 

soon will be, for he is to be assisted by no less than two 
doctors." 

The name of this winged biped has not been preservea ; 
but a certain Irishman in the service of Lord Henry Berke- 
ley, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, has been more fortunate. 
Lady Berkeley having fallen ill at Collowdon, the family 
residence, she sent her courier, who was named Langham, 
with a letter to an old doctor in London. Langham returned, 
carrying in his hand a bottle which contained the medicine 
prescribed by the doctor. The courier had performed his 
journey of 148 miles in forty-two hours, although he was 
detained at night by the doctor, and afterwards by the 
apothecary. A horse could hardly have gone over the 
ground more rapidly. 

In the " Letters from Italy," written in the eighteenth 
century, Beckford says, that being at Placentia in the spring 
of 1766, he sent his courier to Mantua. He did not set out 
before six in the morning, as the gates of the city did not 
open before that hour. The answer he brought was dated 
two hours after mid-day. He presented it next morning 
before Beckford rose, and yet made many excuses for not 
having returned on the day on which he set out. These 
men were capable of accomplishing prodigies ; but it was 
cruel to put them to the test without sufficient cause. The 
distance between the two towns is sixty miles on the map, 
but the road is not at all straight. 

The ambition of the runners of the English aristocracy 
was to beat the horse in speed. Many instances might be 
cited of their having wagered that they would beat a team 
of horses, and, however surprising it may seem, of their 
winning their bets. The Duke of Marlborough, in the 
eighteenth century, while driving a phaeton drawn by four 



126 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL* 

horses, was beaten by a courier in the journey- from London 
to Windsor ; but the conqueror met the fate of some of his 
professional brethren of antiquity— he reached the goal, 
only to fall down never to rise again. 

In proportion as communication became more easy, the 
roads more practicable, and the carriages lighter, the em- 
ployment of couriers became less general. Sir Walter Scott 
had, however, the opportunity of seeing the carriage of Lord 
Hopetoun escorted by one of the old couriers, clothed in 
white and bearing a staff. The Duke of Queensberry, who 
died in 1810, maintained this custom longer than any other 
nobleman in London, and never engaged a courier until 
after he had seen him perform. He stood on his balcony 
in Piccadilly, and watched the competing couriers as, per- 
spiring and bleeding, they ran past in the Queensberry 
livery, which they donned before starting. One day a 
candidate appeared who clothed himself and made ready to 
give a specimen of his ability. He proved, as he appeared 
to be, a fine runner, and, after putting him to a very severe 
trial, his grace said to him, " You will do very well, young 
man." " And your livery equally suits me/' said the other, 
as, cutting a caper, he disappeared, never to return. The duke 
would have ordered a pursuit of this humorous courier, but 
he forbore, seeing well that the man ran better than all those 
in his employment 

Germany has not yet altogether renounced this ancient 
custom, for the King of Saxony maintained within the last 
few years a number of couriers. Imagine the astonishment 
of an English tourist, Mr. Lamont, when wandering about 
the gate of Dresden, he saw the King of Saxony, passing in 
a cloud of dust in a carriage drawn by four horses and pre- 
ceded by couriers ! In these modern times such a spectacle 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 12? 

could only awaken feelings of strong surprise, as at some 
fantastic pageant passing before him. In front of the 
carriage ran an old man, seventy years of age, six feet high, 
and as nimble as a stag. His costume recalled that of 
the couriers of the eighteenth century, the only difference 
being that it was more richly ornamented with embroidery, 
lace, &c. His bonnet was surmounted by two herons' 




English Running Footman. (From an old Sign-board.) 

feathers, and little bells hung from his leathern girdle. Near 
him ran his two sons, fine tall young men, dressed like their 
father. In the evening when the king feasted in public — as 
is the ridiculous custom in that country — the old man stood 
immediately behind his Majesty's chair, his position there 
being an indication of the esteem in which he was held by 
his royal master 

To return to England, where, during the eighteenth 
century eccentricities flourished perhaps to a greater ex- 
tent than in any other country of Europe, we find that a 



128 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

vast amount of money was changing hands in bets upon the 
great runners and pedestrians of the day, whose limbs, 
indeed, seem to have walked off with quite as much a* 
those of the ballet girls of the period. Great walkers were 
not less in vogue than swift runners, and among the most 
celebrated was Powell, born at Horsforth near Leeds, in 
1734. His life was simply a succession of walking matches, 
and when his limbs refused their office any longer, he lay down, 
and died, April 1793. The apathetic Orientals, who spend 
more of their lives on their backs than upon their feet, say 
that happiness is horizontal ; in the eyes of Powell it was 
vertical 

Captain Barclay, a great pedestrian, performed a number 
of most extraordinary walking feats. Descended from a 
family the members of which had long been renowned for 
their athletic achievements, he commenced his career at a 
very early age. In 1801, being then only twenty-two 
years of age, he set out from Ury, the residence of his 
parents, near Boroughbridge in Yorkshire, and in five days 
walked 300 miles, for a bet of 5,000 guineas. His most 
astonishing achievements, however, date from July, 1809. 
He betted ^3,000 that he would walk 1,000 miles in 1,000 
consecutive hours — a feat which many others had attempted 
and had failed. The money that depended on the result 
amounted to ;£i 00,000, and the athlete himself had 
;£i6,ooo at issue. The bold captain started on his journey 
at midnight, June 1, from Newmarket, and on July 12, 
three hours after mid-day, he returned safe and sound. 

The track was half a mile, marked from the house of the 
famous jockey, Buckle, where he put up, and along this he 
went backwards and forwards. A recent chronicler says : — 
" His dress throughout the match varied with the weather. 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 12$ 

Sometimes he wore a flannel jacket, sometimes a loose dark 
grey coat, and walked in strong shoes and two pairs of coarse 
stockings, the outer pair being those known as boot stock- 
ings, without feet, to keep his legs dry. He paced along at 
a sort of lounging gait, without any apparent extraordinary 
exertion, scarcely raising his feet two inches above the 
ground. 

" He breakfasted after returning from his walk at five A.M., 
when he ate a roast fowl and drank a pint of strong ale, then 
two cups of tea, with bread and butter. His luncheon hour 
was noon, when, on alternate days, he partook of mutton- 
chops and beefsteaks, and drank porter and two or three 
glasses of port wine. At six p.m. he dined on roast beef or 
mutton, and a small quantity of such vegetables as were to 
be had. Supper-time arrived with eleven o'clock, a cold 
fowl being his usual food. His four meals were always 
eaten with good relish, and it is computed that he consumed 
from five to six pounds of animal food per twenty-four hours 
During the earlier days he often did not go to bed between 
the miles, but strolled about the streets of Newmarket, or 
reclined on a sofa in his resting apartment on the ground 
floor of the house. 

" On the fourth day he was greatly incommoded by the 
dust, and on the tenth seemed fatigued, owing to the high 
wind and rain. He was, however, still in good health and 
spirits, and started as soon as called. On the twelfth day 
he rested often and slept well, but complained of pains in his 
neck and shoulders, caused by not wearing clothes enough 
during the night, and by sitting, when in a state of perspira- 
tion, with his back towards an open window. Up to this 
day his walking had been very regular, his longest mile 
having occupied but seventeen and a half minutes, and the 

i 



I30 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

greatest time taken iu covering the daily twenty-four miles 
being six hours and twenty-four and a half minutes. 

" Early on the thirteenth day he was attacked by a sore- 
ness in the back tendons of his legs. Next morning it 
increased, and then went off, but reappeared the following 
day, and seized him almost every time he started. No 
remedy appears to have been applied, though one of the 
miles occupied twenty minutes* 

" At noon on the sixteenth he removed to new lodgings 
near the "Horse and Jockey," and shifted his ground, 
walking across the Norwich Road up the heath and back. 
The change proved advantageous, as he felt more com- 
fortable, and his food was not cooked in the house. After 
this time the pain in his legs and thighs impeded him 
at starting, but wore off after going three or four hun- 
dred yards. Curiously enough it was always worst about 
three a.m., and gradually decreased as the day advanced. 
On the nineteenth morning he had some difficulty in walk- 
ing, and lay down frequently and slept. Still his appetite 
continued unimpaired, though his spirits were occasionally 
depressed. Next day his legs were bathed in vinegar, and, 
on the following morning, complaining of soreness in the 
tread of his right foot, vinegar w r as applied to that also. 
Rain had fallen nearly every day up to the twentieth, but 
from that time to the twenty-seventh the heat continued very 
great, and no moisture softened the path, which remained 
hard, notwithstanding that a water-cart went over the ground 
once a day. 

" On the twenty-second Dr. Sandiver was called in, and 
recommended a warm bath, besides sending a liquid to be 
rubbed on the painful parts. Next day Captain Barclay 
W^d unfortunately attacked by toothache, and became 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 131 

feverish and fretful, complaining often of his legs and feet. 
He felt much distressed through want of sleep, but on thA 
twenty-fourth the toothache ceased, and after an hour s res^ 
he awoke much refreshed. Finding, however, that the warm 
bath made his feet tender, he ordered a flannel to be soaked 
in boiling water and wrung dry, then applied, but without 
permanent relief. 

" On the twenty-sixth he was sometimes dressed and out 
before fully awake, and experienced difficulty in moving at 
Starting. The flannel applications, however, began to effect 
some good, also the oil and camphor, which was rubbed on 
the painful parts. These remedies were, therefore, used 
night and day, and on the twenty-seventh the pain moved 
towards the ankles, causing him to suffer much and walk 
heavily. He was also very weak, and as the rain now began 
to fall in large quantities again, it became necessary that he 
should wear his great coat, which fatigued him so much, 
that at four a.m. the mile occupied thirty-six and a half 
minutes, his average per mile on the day having now 
increased to nineteen minutes and thirty-six and a quarter 
seconds, while the total time occupied by the twenty-four 
miles was seven hours and fifty and a half minutes. 

" About this period it was reported that Captain Barclay's 
legs were swollen. The statement is denied on authority ; 
they never swelled during the performance of the feat. On 
the twenty-ninth the pain in his calves increased, but he 
improved so surprisingly during the day, that no one who saw 
him had any idea of his debilitated state at night, whilst 
those who then accompanied him were equally deceived as 
to his appearance in the daytime. He was often so stiff in 
the morning that he could scarcely rise, and when up could 
hardly stand. On the thirty-second, whenever he rested, the 



i 32 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

back tendons of his legs shrunk, and the pain was so exces- 
sive when they relaxed, that he could not get up without 
help. His courage, however, was unconquerable. Next 
morning it was some time after rising before he got the use 
of his limbs, and he appeared completely exhausted. The 
rain, too, was much against him, as his overcoat became 
soaked every time he went out. He now began to " shuffle " 
in his walk, and after resting on the thirty-fourth day, was 
compelled to cry out when moved. He however continued 
determined to complete the task at all risks, and notwith- 
standing that he grew weaker every hour, displayed remark- 
able resolution. One of the chief difficulties now was to 
manage his time, especially in the wet weather. He did not 
seem, on the thirty-eighth day, to relish his food as usual, 
and had become so much exhausted that when lifted up he 
could not stand without assistance. It became quite appa- 
rent that he could not have held out much longer, but the 
end was now drawing near, and he gained fresh courage. 

"At length the finishing mile was entered upon at a 
quarter past three p.m., and completed, amidst the ringing 
cheers of his supporters, at thirty-seven minutes past three. 
He was then placed in a hot bath for a few minutes, well 
dried with flannels, and put to bed at four o'clock. He 
slept well until midnight, when he was awakened and had some 
water-gruel administered to him. Directly after he sank to 
sleep again, and arose at nine next morning, without pain, 
and in perfect health, so completely recovered, in fact, that 
four days afterwards he joined the Walcheren Expedition, 
and acted as aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Huntly. Dur- 
ing the performance of his herculean feat Captain Barclay lost 
two stone four pounds in weight, but it left no ill effects 
afterwards. Altogether twelve days (of twenty-four hours 



COURIERS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. I33 

per diem) and eight hours were occupied in walking alone, 
so that the one thousand miles were covered at the rate of 
81 miles and 142 yards per twenty-four hours. The average 
time for the miles during each week was : — 

M. S. M. S. 



First ....14 54 

Second 16 o 

Third 16 41 



Fourth... 18 36 

Fifth 19 41 

Sixth 21 4 



" The longest mile occupied 36! minutes, the shortest 
12 minutes; the longest 24 miles 8 hours 39 J minutes, and 
the shortest 5 hours 40 minutes. 

" Several other persons afterwards attempted the ' Bar- 
clay feat,' but all failed. Mr. Howe started at Cliffe Com- 
mon, Somerset, and gave up after fifteen days, his health 
being much impaired. Mr. Blackie walked on for twenty- 
three days, when, having lost three stone six pounds, he 
stopped. In May, 181 2, Mr. Martingale made an attempt, 
but after thirty days was obliged to succumb, nature refusing 
to carry him any further. Of the numerous reported 
successes on running grounds of late years we take no heed. 
The pedestrians were never very carefully looked after, and, 
no doubt, though they paced the track diligently in open day, 
they took their proper rest at night, or during intervals when 
there were no lookers on."* 

• London Society. 



w 



CHAPTER III. 

RACES OF FEMALES. 

Races of Shepherdesses in Wurtemberg — Atalanta. 

If there is an exercise in which women can rival men, it is 
racing, for it requires chiefly suppleness and lightness, and 
for these qualities the other sex is distinguished. In several 
quarters of Germany races of females are held, and one of 
the most notable takes place on St. Bartholomew's Day at 
Markt-Groningen in Wurtemburg. This is a little town 
which anciently belonged to the Counts of Groningen, who 
were related to the reigning dynasty. Formerly a much- 
frequented market was held there on St. Bartholomew's 
Day. It is nothing now but a holiday gathering, enlivened 
by games, of which the most important is the country girls' 
race. They show the utmost interest in the contest, and in 
taking part in it have their feet entirely uncovered, and wear 
nothing on their bodies but a petticoat with a short boddice. 
They wait impatiently for the signal of starting, and as soon 
as it is given they spring forward with a bound, followed 
close — so close as to endanger their heels— by the town- 
clerk on horseback. What does this grave functionary do 
here ? and why pursue so closely girls whose ardour requires 
no incentive ? That is not his reason for spurring them on, 
mounted on his great Mecklenburgh horse, but to keep order, 
and put a stop to any dispute that may arise in this sport in 
which the amour propre of the women is so much engaged. 



RACES OF FEMALES. 135 

Each wishes of course to win the prize, and in endeavouring 
to obtain it all means are considered fair. One shoves her 
companion to make her fall, and will even roll upon the 
ground with her. Another strikes her neighbour in the 
side, that she may thus for a time stop the breath of a 
dangerous rival. These stratagems were strictly prohibited 
in the races of the ancients ; for in those, contests, whoever 
tried to stop his rival, or make him fall, by running against 
him, was excluded from the chance of winning, and was, 
indeed, branded with infamy. The country girls of Markt- 
Groningen are not treated with equal rigour. They practise 
the same system of artifices in another kind of exercise, 
which is to the contest we are describing what the racing of 
the hoplitodromoi, or armed men, was to the ordinary 
racing in the Olympic games. In the case of the girls of 
Markt-Groningen, however, no armour is carried; they 
are weighted not with a helmet, but with pitchers filled with 
water, which they keep in equilibrium by holding them with 
one hand. The great endeavour is to reach the goal without 
having spilled the water. But, alas ! without suffering in 
the least from the jealousy of a rival, the slightest accident 
may prove fatal to the hopes of the fair candidate. She 
makes one false step, the pitcher trembles, she raises her 
hands to steady it, but it is too late ; it falls, and the nymph 
is drenched from top to toe. 

These young German girls, and all ladies who practise 
this sport, have an illustrious descent from the Atalanta of 
antiquity. Male runners have Mercury for their patron, but 
it is questionable whether they can be congratulated on 
their protector, that god not being in the odour of sanctity 
either on the earth or in Olympus ; for he is accused of fre- 
quent acts of more than doubtful morality. Mercury's two 



I36 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

pretty little wings, attached to his heels, did not correspond 
to any mental delicacy, and his conscience was much more 
elastic than his limbs. The ladies can at least acknowledge 
Atalanta, of whom two impersonations figure in the ancient 
mythology, one belonging to Arcadia, the other to Boeotia. 
The more celebrated of the two, in coming into the world, 
was disowned by her father, who had desired a boy, and who, 
furious on this account, had her exposed pitilessly upon the 
lonely slopes of Mount Parthenius, beside a stream, at the 
entrance of a cave. The child was suckled — so runs the 
story — by a she-bear, and grew up in solitude in the midst 
of the forest, pursuing the swift deer and hunting the boar 
with the bow and javelin. She, among others, took part in 
the expedition against the wild boar of Calydon, and from 
the hide of the animal made a garment, which she wore all 
the rest of her life. All these tastes were certainly some- 
what masculine, and it was perhaps this circumstance that 
brought about a reconciliation between her and her father. 
But what was he to make of such a daughter? Marry her 
as quick as possible, although the Delphic oracle had 
announced that Hymen would be unpropitious. As to the 
the selection of a husband, Atalanta made her own con- 
ditions, which were that she should give her hand only to 
the man who would catch her in a race, and that all others 
who should attempt the prize and fail should become her 
slaves. Milanion, among others, entered the lists, and the 
chase commenced. It is useless to say that Atalanta with 
flying feet kept ahead of her pursuers. Milanion laboured 
after her unsuccessfully, but as he was in the good graces of 
Venus, that goddess had made him a present of three 
apples, telling him to throw them upon the ground in front 
of his rival if she seemed likely to win. Atalanta, who 



^mmmmmim § 




RACES OF FEMALES. 139 

without doubt had never seen such beautiful fruit, stooped to 
pick up the apples, and allowed the protege of Venus to take 
the lead. Thus, by means of his legs and the grace of the 
goddess, Milanion won the hand of Atalanta, by whom he 
had a son, Parthenopeus, who in his turn became an excel- 
lent runner. But some time after their marriage the young 
couple were changed into beasts, much, no doubt, to their 
surprise. What was their crime ? Had they profaned the 
temple of Cybele? Or was it perhaps because they had 
been wanting in gratitude to Venus? The moral of the 
story is this : If you receive benefits never forget to thank 
those who bestowed them. Three apples, we may say, is 
no great affair ; so be it ; but their value is to be judged by 
the good gained by them. We thus see that the apple has 
played a prominent and disastrous part in the history of 
woman. 



140 



CHAPTER IV. 

LEAPING AND LEAPERS IN ANTIQUITV. 

Jumping as a Mechanical Evolution — Leaping among Animals — 
Among Insects — The Game of the Greased Leathern Bottle — 
A Professor in the Art of Leaping — Lamentations of an old 
Hindoo. 

Racing, which was the subject of the two preceding 
chapters, is a complex act, essentially embodying in itself 
the process of leaping. We might even say that running 
is only composed of a succession of leaps, more or less 
rapid, and of greater or less extent. Leaping, properly so 
called, is a special movement, in which the body is for a 
brief space entirely detached from the ground, and remains 
an instant suspended, so to speak, in space, before it falls 
to the earth. It is the result of impulsive force acting in an 
upward direction throughout the whole system by the sudden 
extension of the lower members, the joints of which are 
first bent. At the moment at which a man is on the point 
of jumping upward, his feet touch the earth obliquely, and 
his legs are at a similar angle to his feet, his thighs to the 
lower part of the leg, and his trunk to the thighs. In this 
position, in which the action of the flexor muscles retains 
it, the body is considerably diminished in length, and its 
centre of gravity very much lowered. The muscles, how- 
ever, cannot remain long in a position so contrary to nature, 
and when the tension ceases, the joints are suddenly 
straightened by the vigorous and quick action of the extensor 



LEAPING AND LEAPERS IN ANTIQUITY. 141 

muscles which determine the force of projection that enables 
the body to spring up from the ground, and perform the de- 
sired movement, overcoming the resistance of the weight of 
the body. The "Encyclopaedia" of Diderot and D'Alembert 
says, " That in order to calculate the force of all the muscles 
brought into play when a man resting upon his feet leaps up 
to the height of two feet or so, we ought to remember that 
he weighs 150 lbs., and that the forces necessary to raise the 
body to the height mentioned act with 2,000 times greater 
force, or with a force equivalent to 300,000 lbs. 

But it is especially among animals that the study of the 
mechanism on which leaping depends is most interesting. 
The greater the length of the hind legs, the longer will be 
the leaps which the body is able to execute. It is thus that 
we are able to explain the prodigious and rapid jumps of 
the squirrel, the hare, and above all the jerboa. This last 
quadruped, whose hind extremities are very long, does not 
walk upon four feet, but carries on locomotion by jumping 
upon two. Nothing is more curious than to see him when 
he is suddenly surprised by the hunter in the midst of tall 
corn, over the ears of which he leaps, appearing and dis- 
appearing like a will-o'-the-wisp, the most accomplished 
pursuer experiencing great difficulty in catching him. In 
extremity he can get over ten feet at a single bound ; and in 
his ordinary movements he traverses at least three or four 
feet at a leap. No animal is in this respect so highly gifted 
as the frog; and certain serpents also throw themselves 
forward to great distances. It is by an analogous move- 
ment that fishes, as the trout, salmon, &c, swimming in 
streams broken up by cataracts, are able to surmount all 
the obstacles they meet in ascending them. 

The whale jumps from fifteen to twenty feet out of the sea, 



142 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

"after having," says Barthez, " struck the water with its tail 
so suddenly and so swiftly that it, seeming to be for the m~ 
stant fixed, gives a support like a spring-board to the bound 
of this enormous animal. Nothing, however, among the 
larger species is equal to the wonderful power of insects, 
in which the muscles attain their maximum of force, 
verifying the saying of Pliny, that " Nature is greatest in 
little things." The grasshopper, for example, jumps two 
hundred times higher than the length of its body. Schwam- 
merdam (1637— 1680) remarks, in connection with this fact, 
that the legs of this insect are like high pillars between 
which the suspended body is at first balanced before being 
projected with all the more force by the action of the 
extensor muscles. And that other insect, which the Arabs 
call the faf her of leaping, is there anything more astonishing 
than the action of its muscles? The flea — if we must 
mention the lively insect — clears with a single leap a dis- 
tance one hundred times the length of its own body, and 
can drag a weight twenty-four times as heavy as itself. 

Man is not thus favoured, but there are some who 
appear to have received in certain measure the gift from 
bounteous nature. Among these was Phayllus, of Croton, 
who, if we are to believe history, could jump a distance of 
from fifty-four to fifty-six feet. The exercise was practised 
at the Olympic games, and formed part of the course of 
the Pentathlon. 

The athletes who competed for this prize were naked, 
and used unguents more than all others. We may surmise, 
in spite of the silence of the ancient authors on the subject, 
that suppleness was a condition indispensable in this kind 
of exercise. The only things with which they burdened 
themselves were certain lumps of lead called halteres, which 



LEAPING AND LEAPERS IN ANTIQUITY. 



»43 



^ 



they carried one in each hand. These varied in form with 
the times ; for, while upon the remains of ancient vases and 
sculptured stones they appear pierced with an opening 
sufficiently large to allow of the hand passing through, in 
other cases they are furnished with a species of handle. 
However the form might change, their use was always the 
same, to give to the leaper more elas- 
ticity and strength, and to balance 
him in coming down on the ground. 
They were also beneficial in develop- 
ing the strength of the arms and 
shoulders. Other athletes besides 
leapers — pugilists, for example — did 
not neglect to employ them, and 
many used them merely for healthy 
exercise. In the palaestra they were 
employed in all sorts of bodily exer- 
cises, but especially for leaping, of 
which there were several kinds, high 
leaps, long leaps, and leaps from a 
height downward. The athletes also 
practised jumping through hoops and 
over cords and naked swords. One 
variety of this exercise was the 
" game of the leathern bottle," which consisted of leaping 
either with the two feet or with only one upon a leather 
bottle or bladder inflated with air or filled with wine and 
covered with a coating of oil or grease. The difficulty in 
this case was not in making the leap, but in maintaining 
the footing upon the slippery surface of the bag. 

This department of athletics was not held in high 
estimation, and consequently was not practised until the 




Halteres used in Jumping. 

(From a vase in the Hamilton 

collection.) 



144 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

more important competitions had taken place in running, 
wrestling, and pugilism. Homer makes no mention of it 
among the games of the Greeks under the walls of Troy, but 
it was in force among the Phocians, a frivolous race, fond 
of good living, dancing, and dress. 

The most agile runners were always the best jumpers. 




Leaping with Halteres. (From a Painted Vase— Gerhard)' 

Thus Phayllus of Croton, who made the wonderful leap 
referred to above, was an indefatigable runner, and the 
Basques, who were also remarkable for swiftness in running, 
vaulted splendidly, either with or without the aid of poles. 
" He runs and leaps marvellously," was a frequent expres- 
sion in ancient France in speaking of the Basque lackeys. 
The Spaniards are the cousins of the Basques, and partake 
of their tastes and capabilities; and Colonel Amoros, a 
great judge in these matters, puts the English in the same 
category. " An Englishman," said he, in his " Manual of 



LEAPING AND LEAPERS IN ANTIQUITY. 



*45 



Physical Education" (Paris, 1830), "leapt the ditch of the 
garden of Mousseau, which is thirty feet wide, and we find 





Leaping with Halterea. 
(From a carving— Caylus.) 



Leaping over Javelins, 
(From a carving — Caylus.) 



among this people as good long leapers as among the 
Spaniards. The best of my pupils did sixteen feet : and at 




High Leap. (From a painted vase in the Hamilton collection. 

Madrid a young lad of thirteen years leapt eighteen feet." 
In the seventeenth century lived a clever Englishman, 

J 



146 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

William Stokes, who combined theory with practice, and 
who boasted that he had mastered the true principles of the 
art of leaping. These he expounded in a book originally 
published at Oxford, in 1652, called "The Vaulting Master." 
According to his method, a number of remarkable per- 
formers were trained ; among others, a famous leaper, Simp- 
son, who exhibited his powers at the fair of St Bar- 




The Game of the Greased Bottle. (After Raponi.) 

tholomew. Strutt, the author of a standard work on the 
games and amusements of the people of England, says that 
the most extraordinary jumper of whom he had any record 
was one named Ireland, of the county of York, who was 
eighteen years of age, six feet high, and of most prepos- 
sessing appearance. He leapt over nine horses ranged side 
by side, and over the man who was mounted upon the 
middle one. A cord, which was extended before him at the 
height of fourteen feet above the ground, he cleared with a 
single effort. With a furious bound he crushed with his 
foot a bladder suspended sixteen feet above the ground, 



LEAPING AND LEAPERS IN ANTIQUITY. 



147 



and on another occasion cleared a waggon, covered with an 
awning, with a simple leap. 

If Strutt had travelled in India he would have seen 




High Leap. (From an ancient carving.) 

stranger things than those, for the Orientals are endowed 
with astonishing suppleness of joints. Colonel Ironside, 
who at the beginning of the century lived in India, and 




Leaping with Pole. (From a vase.) 

closely observed the feats of the jugglers, met in his travels 
an old white-bearded man, who, with one leap, sprung over 
the back of an enormous elephant, flanked by five or six 

I 2 



I48 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

camels of the largest breed. The poor man, however, had 
not satisfied himself, and cried out bitterly that he had 
known the time when he performed in the presence of the 
King of Persia, and was able to boast that he was really a 
leaper. Old age and infirmities had reduced him, and 
deprived him of all his strength, and he had also since that 
time broken his arm and leg. What must have been the 
agility of this man in his youth, who in his old age was so 
vigorous ? There is nothing more common in India than to 
see an athlete leaping over twenty people, whose extended 
arms form a sort of vault, or over a naked sword which a 
man holds as high in the air as possible. "The Tracts 
towards the History of Wonders performed at Fairs," Paris, 
1745, mentions, as a marvellous feat, an Englishman's having, 
at the fair of Saint Germain, in 1724, leapt over forty people, 
without touching one of them 1 



CHAPTER V. 

ACkOBATS in antiquity. 

Acrobatic Feats in Homer — An Ancient Banquet — Feats with the 
Hoop — The Sword Dance — The Young Hippoclides of Athens — 
He misses a Splendid Marriage. 

Leaping, though carried to extremes, was a natural and 
becoming exercise, which could without any impropriety be 
practised in public. This character entitled it to a place 
among the Olympic games and to the laurel crowns which 
were accorded to the winners. But besides classical leaping, 
there was another variety less natural, which among us is 
known as acrobatic tumbling, and is of very high antiquity. 
In the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " it is mentioned as 
having been practised at the fetes celebrated at the palace 
of Menelaus the Lacedaemonian, in honour of the marriage 
of his daughter, when two tumblers went through their per- 
formances before the assembled nobles. Upon the shield 
of Achilles Vulcan represented tumblers who leapt and 
turned themselves upside down. These feats were chiefly 
performed at wedding and holiday rejoicings, and were 
generally accompanied by the music of the flute. Women 
did not hesitate to take part in them; and the gravest 
authors of antiquity have condescended to record the 
achievements of the female acrobats. 

Gallus entertained a number of friends at his house at 
Piraea, on the occasion of a victory gained in the public 
games by a young man of his acquaintance. Meeting 



15° 



WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 



Socrates, with a number of his disciples, he invited them to 
join his guests. A great banquet was never complete with- 
out the attendance of a flatterer and a buffoon, and accord- 
ingly a certain person named Philip soon appeared, who 
united in himself the two offices. The repast finished, the 
table cleared, the company poured their libations, and sang 
the customary hymn in honour of Apollo. 
The amusements then began; amongst 
the performers was a very able player 
upon the flute, and a female dancer 
whose feats of suppleness and tumbling 
were remarkable. The former com- 
menced an air upon his instrument, 
while an attendant supplied the danseuse 
with about twenty hoops; these she 
took, and while dancing, threw them up 
into the air with such skill that in 
coming back to her hand they fell 
marking the time of the music. So- 
crates, to whom the slightest incident 
was matter for reflection, observed that 
"woman is an intelligent being, quick 
to learn and to imitate, and would be 
second to man in nothing but for the want of physical 
strength." Afterwards they brought her a wide hoop, in 
the rim of which naked swords, with their points directed 
inwards, were fastened. Through this the dancer made a 
number of somersaults, much to the alarm of the spectators, 
who feared that she would lacerate herself, but she acquitted 
herself in the most daring and successful manner without a 
single accident. A number of wonderful feats were then per- 
formed with a wheel, and when she had finished, Philip, the 




Ancient Tumbler. 



ACROBATS IN ANTIQUITY. 151 

buffoon, attempted to imitate her, but m caricature, and always 
purposely taking the wrong way. " It appears to me," here 
objected Socrates, "that for tumblers to leap through a hoop 
mars the character of a gay and joyous festival, and, indeed, 
it is difficult to understand what pleasure there can be in 
witnessing such spectacles. Is it more amusing to see a 
handsome woman twirling and contorting herself in making 
backward tumbles than to see her calm and composed? 
When a couple of young performers dance to the sound of 




Another Scene. 

the flute, attired in the elegant costume of the Graces, the 
Seasons, or the Nymphs, well and good, the picture is a 
simple and a pleasing one." 

Many of the feats and perilous leaps alluded to above 
are represented upon vases, sculptured stones, or other 
ancient relics which have been preserved to the present day. 
One represents a woman who walks upon her hands, while 
with one foot she seizes some vessel, and with the other 
ladles it into a cup, a second female regarding the spectacle 
with astonishment. Another tablet shows a woman throwing 
a somersault within a circle of swords fixed in the ground, 
their points directed upwards. In ancient times, however, 
a man moving in good society was not permitted to indulge 
in acrobatic feats, and young Hippoclides learned this fact 



152 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

at very great expense, as maybe seen from the following 
narrative, taken from Herodotus : — 

" Clisthenes, King of Sicyon, who had raised his family 
to the highest renown, had a daughter, named Agarista, 
whom he desired to see married to the most accomplished 
man in all Greece. At the Olympic games, after having 
carried away the prize for chariot racing, he caused his herald 




Female Acrobats. (From an ancient vase.) 

to make this proclamation : ' Whoever among the Greeks 
considers himself worthy to become the son-in-law of Clis- 
thenes, has only to present himself at Sicyon within sixty 
days, or sooner, if more suitable. At the end of the year 
Clisthenes will name the man whom he prefers for his 
daughter's hand.' All the Greeks who thought themselves 
worthy set out for Sicyon as candidates. In order to put 
their valour to the proof, the king caused an arena to be 
prepared for wrestling and foot racing. Accordingly, they 
found themselves all gathered together on the appointed 
day. Clisthenes began by inquiring the country and the 
parentage of each, and afterwards kept them at his court for 



ACROBATS IN ANTIQUITY. 



*53 



a year, making himself acquainted with their manners and 
their abilities. He watched them separately and in com- 
pany, and specially observed their conduct and bearing at 
table. Thus he lived all the time among them, entertaining 
them with the greatest munificence. Those who pleased 
him most were the Athenians, and especially Hippoclides, 
son of Tisander, who won his good-will, more on account of 
his valour than his noble lineage. 

"The great day at length arrived, the solemn day on 




Another Scene. (Ditto. 



which Clisthenes was to proclaim his choice, and the mar- 
riage take place. The King of Sicyon commenced by 
making a sacrifice of a hundred bullocks, and there was then 
a splendid feast, at which the candidates and the people of 
the town were regaled. At the end of the entertainment 
the young men competed for the palm of excellence in 
music and eloquence. Hippoclides was easily the victor in 
both arts, and after his success had been established, he 
made a sign to the flautist to play upon his instrument, 
and danced to the music with a highly self-satisfied air. 
Clisthenes, who observed him attentively, began to look 



154 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

displeased. Hippoclides stopped for a few instants, then, 
calling for a table, he mounted upon it, and continued his 
dance, first after the Laconian fashion, afterwards in the 
antique style, and finally stood upon his head, gesticulating 
with his legs. During the first of these performances Clis- 
thenes felt an aversion to this candidate for his daughter's 
hand springing up within him; but wishing to avoid a scene, 
he restrained himself. When, however, the youth stood on 
his head, with his legs in the air, he could contain himself 
no longer, and cried out, ' Son* of Tisander, you have lost 
your wife by your dancing.' To which, in his turn, the 
youth replied, 'It's all the same to Hippoclides/ a saying 
which afterwards passed into a proverb. 

" Silence was enforced, and Clisthenes said to the com- 
pany : 1 1 pray you gentlemen who are here present in the 
hope of wedding my daughter believe that I hold you all as 
young men of great promise, and very willingly, if it were 
possible, I would gratify you all without choosing one to 
the disadvantage of the others. Having, however, only one 
daughter at my disposal, I cannot satisfy all of you, but in 
acknowledgment of the honour you have done me, and for 
your trouble in leaving your homes and journeying hither, 
I give to each of you a talent of silver. With respect to 
Megacles, son of Alcmseon, from this moment I betroth him 
to my daughter Agarista, to marry her according to the 
usages and customs of the Athenians.' Megacles accepted 
the conditions, and Clisthenes appointed a day for the 
wedding." 

Tacitus, in his " Germania," speaks of young men of that 
country who danced naked among swords fixed in the earth, 
and crossed with their points upward. 

We may wonder why the jugglers and other public per- 



ACROBATS IN ANTIQUITY. I55 

formers of the middle ages neglected to reproduce these 
feats invented in very ancient times, for the pictures in old 
MSS. would have guided them. The art of dancing, how- 
ever, like all the others, declined during the dark ages, and 
though still practised, it was without rule or principle. It 
was with leaping as with the poetry of the period, which ran 
at random and without a plan. Restorers were earnestly 
demanded for both arts, and they came in the persons 
of Malherbe the litterateur, and Archangel Zuccaro the 
gymnast. 

Zuccaro was the perfect type of those Italians, adroit, 
supple, thoroughly disciplined in all bodily exercises, who 
came to France in the sixteenth century, when the arts and 
the games of Italy began to be introduced at the French 
court. He was not, however, brought into France by one 
of those Italian princesses who carried with them the spirit 
of intrigue combined with a taste for balls and fetes. He 
was indeed the servant of a princess, but of a German one, 
Elizabeth, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian, married to 
the king of France, Charles IX. 

There were three things for which Archangel Zuccaro, 
who was born in the Abruzzi, thanked Heaven. They in 
no respect resembled those upon which a Greek of antiquity 
felicitated himself, who thanked the gods every day that he 
was a man and not a beast, a man and not a woman, a 
Greek and not a barbarian. It was Zuccaro's happiness, 
first, that he had served the Emperor Maximilian, " who, 
marrying his daughter Isabel to King Charles IX., com-, 
manded me to follow her, to see the beauty of this most 
noble country, in which I have ever since dwelt, being 
retained with the consent of my master the king, by her 
Majesty the queen, in order to be of use in those honest 



156 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

exercises which she knows are in me, and thus to have had 
an honourable place in two Christian courts." The second 
consideration that made him thank Heaven was that he 
" had found the means of reducing the somersault under 
certain rules and measures which had never been accom- 
plished before." And the third fact was that he had 
dedicated the book in which he sets forth his principles " to 
her very Christian Majesty of France." Zuccaro traces the 
history of this art back to the earliest ages of the world, puts 
the Bible in evidence upon the subject, and quotes Homer, 
Aristotle, Plato, and many others, especially himself, in sup- 
port of his views. 

The most curious part of his book is the information 
he gives us regarding Charles IX. "This magnanimous 
king, who will never be sufficiently praised, was desirous 
of practising perilous leaping, in respect of which I have 
the honour to be of use to his Majesty." The royal pupil 
acquired great expertness in all athletic exercises, and, 
according to his teacher, delighted to match himself with 
the best athletes, made running his study, handled his 
weapons creditably, even among the greatest masters of 
fencing, was passionately fond of tournaments as well as 
of the chase, and amused himself by taming the proudest, 
most intractable, or, as the professor says, the most cross- 
grained horses. Regarded from this point of view, the son 
of Catherine de Medicis falls naturally within the scope of 
our subject. 

The example of the king, of course, induced all the 
nobles and gentry to pay great attention to feats of strength 
and agility, and Zuccaro mentions the fact in the beginning 
of his book, which opens like a romance of chivalry. 
Imagine a chateau situated in Touraine, a province "so 



ACROBATS IN ANTIQUITY. 157 

beautiful, so pleasant, and so fertile," says Zuccaro, " that it 
is considered the garden of France, as much for the mild- 
ness of its climate as for its abundant production of the 
things necessary for life, and varied with fertile plains, wide- 
extending forests, beautiful rivers, and spacious orchards." 
After the celebration of the royal nuptials, Charles IX., 
desirous of showing his states to his new queen, was 
travelling through this province with a numerous and 
brilliant suite. The beauty of the country and the pleasant- 
ness of the atmosphere tempted them to put up for some 
days chiefly at the Chateau du Boys, one of the mansions 
of the Seigneur du Fontaine. The nobility of the 
neighbourhood welcomed the royal party, whose principal 
amusements during their stay were hunting, running, and 
wrestling, which were here ardently pursued. Zuccaro, in 
his description of the scene, cannot refrain from indulging 
in the bombastic style of the time, to his own glorification. 
" While," he says, " some of the royal company passed the 
time with music, some danced, and some fenced with their 
weapons, one of the lords, coming forward, inquired for the 
great athlete. ? Where/ said he, ' is that prince of the most 
rare exercises of the age.' * He is in his chamber/ answered 
one, 'arranging the architecture of some admirable leaps 
which he has invented!'" Eventually Zuccaro is dis- 
covered, and comes forward to instruct the gentlemen in 
the mysteries of the art of jumping. His magnum opus was 
very nearly lost amid the civil discords which disturbed the 
French capital, but after much labour the work was recon- 
structed, and the lost papers replaced by fresh copies. The 
book was not laid at the feet of Charles IX., the death of 
that monarch rendering the step impossible. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MODERN ACROBATS. 

The Fair of St Germain— A Fete at Chantilly under Louis XV.— 
The Somersault in England — The Dance executed by Herodias's 
Daughter — Editors and Gymnasts of the Middle Ages — The 
Summit of the Old Basilicas is Profaned— The Strasburg Cathe- 
dral—Goethe and his Vertigo— A Faithful Dog — The Heiress of 
Gowrie. 

The Italians and the French are surely born to understand 
and appreciate each other; their natural nimbleness must 
establish between them a sort of family alliance. The 
Italians, who have always excelled in acrobatic feats, 
voluntarily select France as/#r excellence the theatre of their 
exploits. In the eighteenth century there was in Paris an 
Italian who equalled if he did not surpass Zuccaro. His 
name was Grimaldi, but he is better known under his sobri- 
quet of Iron-leg. He first appeared about 1742, at the 
fair of St. Germain, and in a short time acquired the reputa- 
tion of being the best leaper of his day. If his legs were 
iron, the springs of the machine were certainly of steel, for 
his elasticity was equal to his strength. He was aided in all 
his performances by a female, of whom, says M. Fournel, in 
his work upon the popular spectacle of Paris, no one knows 
in what relationship she stood to him. He wagered that in 
his entertainment of The Prize of Cythera he would jump as 
high as the chandeliers, and so well did he keep his word 
that with a blow he knocked off a portion of one of 



MODERN ACROBATS". l59 

them, which fell at the feet of Mahomet lEffendi, the 
Turkish ambassador, who was sitting in the king's box. 
When the performance was finished, Grimaldi presented him- 
self before his Excellency, expecting a reward for his skill, but 
he was received with the greatest hauteur by the ambas- 
sador's servants, who informed him in the severest manner 
that instead of a reward he deserved punishment. The 
Turks never could appreciate the fine arts ! 

Before the time of Iron-leg, Crepin had appeared, who, 
for a lame person, was wonderfully nimble. He had been 
preceded by a Basque named Du Broc, who was the first to 
execute the spring-board leap, holding a flaming torch in 
each hand. 

T :3 rendezvous of all professional leaperswas the fair of 
St. Germain, the centre of trade and pleasure, where, during 
two months and a half — the deration of the fair in the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries — the Parisians congregated in 
great multitudes. At first the fair lasted only for a fortnight, 
but little by little it encroached upon the carnival, then upon 
Lent, and at the same time came to include the whole 
superficial area now bounded by the Fours, Boucheries, the 
Quatre-Vents, and Tournon streets. It was here that the 
great athletic celebrities formed their style, and from this 
nursery went forth the acrobats who made such a prominent 
figure at the fete given to Louis XV. by the Duke of Bourbon 
in his magnificent domain of Chantilly, from the 4th to the 
8th of November, 1722. The young prince first visited the 
park, and admired the menagerie, and as he left, Orpheus 
appeared before him in the midst of a grotto surrounded by 
oleanders and orange trees. The part of Orpheus was filled 
by a fiddler in the opera, whose enchanting strains had a 
visible effect upon the animals which the king had just 



l6o WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

inspected. At the sound of the violin the beasts, as well 
they might, stood stock still, but when the French Orpheus 
played variations, which included the sounds of hunting 
horns and the baying and barking of hounds, sauve qui peul 
was the word in the menagerie. The bears climbed to the 
summits of the trees, threw themselves upon the tight ropes 
that had been extended, and performed endless feats of 
suppleness and dexterity; while the other animals, the 
monkeys, lions, and tigers, showed the greatest excitement, 
leaping and bounding about with all that savage alertness 
which they manifest in their native wilds when pursued by 
the huntsman, or when capturing their prey. The most 
wonderful feat, however, which these denizens of the woods 
and wildernesses performed was their coming all together 
in a row and making a profound obeisance to the king ! 
It then for the first time became apparent to all that those 
wild beasts were only a troupe of the best rope-dancers 
and vaulters from the fair of St. Germain, dressed, painted, 
and otherwise "made up" for the entertainment of the 
prince. 

The English cultivated with equal success the art of 
tumbling, and they were especially great in the acrobatic 
leap, called the somerset. It is said that this word dates 
from the seventeenth century, from the reign of James I., 
whose great favourite was Robert Carr, Duke of Somerset, 
who was highly accomplished in this exercise. But somerset 'vs* 
a corruption of somersault, which itself is an altered form of 
the word soubresault^ in its turn derived from the Italian 
sopraselto. In reality the origin of this species of leaping in 
England was of a much more ancient date. Jugglers per- 
formed this feat in order to amuse the Saxon princes and 
the Norman kings ; they travelled the country, stopping at 



MODERN ACROBATS. l6l 

the great houses and giving entertainments, and sometimes 
.executed their displays of skill on horseback. 

We read in ancient chronicles that one day Edward II. 
(fourteenth century), deriving great entertainment from see- 
ing one of these mountebanks, who ran before him, and in 
throwing his somersaults frequently leapt over a horse's back, 
gave the tumbler twenty shillings, a large sum for the time, 
and very likely more than the performance was worth. 

The decided taste of the English nobility for such 
exercises has been the cause of a very singular mistake. In 
the engravings of ancient manuscripts (of the thirteenth 
and fourteenth centuries) we see Salome, the daughter of 
Herodias, throwing a somersault before Herod, to obtain a 
boon of the king, the boon being the head of John the 
Baptist. But why the somersault? we wish to know. There 
is no mention of it in sacred writ, which simply says she 
danced, without any accompaniment of somersaults. The 
translators of the Gospel in the middle ages did not believe 
that this fatal dance was in itself such an innocent affair, for 
it seemed to them monstrous that as a reward for two or 
three capers Herod should have delivered up the head of 
John the Baptist. To obtain such a reward it was natural 
to suppose that Salome performed some extraordinary acro- 
batic feats, marvels of tumbling, and wonders of strength. 
Thus, without having regard to historic accuracy, but led 
away by a feeling in itself commendable, the translators and 
commentators speak of the girl as a common mountebank, 
like those whom in their own day* they constantly saw per- 
forming at fairs and fetes — as one of those women light 
equally in their heels and their morals, who imitated or 
rivalled the daring somersaults of the men to whose troupe 
they were attached. Had the mistake recorded been made 

K 



1 62 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

only on paper it would have been lost sight of in time, but 
in the middle ages men engraved their thoughts on their 
cathedrals and sculptured them on their monuments. They 
could only conceive the daughter of Herodias in a grotesque 
and extravagant posture, and at the present day carvings are 
to be seen in many cathedrals representing her dancing on 
her hands and head, with her legs in the air. 

Acrobatic feats were the fashion in the time of Henry 
VIII., who was much amused by them, and paid heavy sums 
to the professors of the art. At the coronation of Queen 
Mary, his daughter, who inherited his tastes, a Hollander 
named Peter executed feats of agility under the summit of 
St. Pauls, and also performed on the tight rope in the 
theatres. He displayed his skill under the vane of the 
steeple, sustaining himself sometimes upon one foot and 
sometimes on his knees, brandishing at the same time a huge 
flag which waved in the wind. The flag had a very fine 
effect, but it was otherwise with the torches, with which he 
also performed, for they refused to burn when wanted. For 
his skill, and as something to pay the expenses of his aerial 
establishment, he received, according to Holinshed's chronicle, 
the sum of £16 13 s. 4d. 

It was a singular idea to choose the summit of an im- 
posing and venerable church as the scene of such fantastic 
tricks. It is, however, often the case that cathedral spires 
attract the lightning, and when damage is done, can only be 
repaired by men who have the perfect self-possession and 
skill which ground and lofty tumbling demands and deve- 
lops. From the square of Strasbourg, in the early days of 
April, i860, one might have witnessed an unprecedented 
spectacle — that of a human form struggling and swaying at 
the summit of the steeple. The form at that distance looked 



MODERN ACROBATS. 163 

not larger than a mere speck, and its motions were only to 
be distinguished by the aid of an opera-glass. The climber 
— surely possessed of some evil spirit — was a young soldier, 
for whom lofty eminences had a special attraction, and who 
loved his cathedral of Strasbourg as much as Quasimodo 
loved the towers of Notre-Dame in Paris. He mounted up 
to the steeple as soon as he had a moment of liberty, and 
remained as long as he chose, for military discipline has little 
terror at 142 metres above the level of the sea, the elevation 
at which this soldier indulged in his awful amusement. 

One particular day the wind blew with a violence which 
gave one some idea of what must be its force in the higher 
regions, and especially round the spire. There it was not 
merely a gale but a hurricane, and the spectator shuddered 
to see the clothes of this daring climber blown about by 
the squall. In order to arrive at what is known as the plat- 
form, it is only necessary to have good legs and strong limbs, 
but above that point, one feels so much carried away by the 
air that surrounds him, that the greater number of strangers 
cease their ascent at the platform. Enthusiasts, however, 
with good lungs and strong limbs, work their way into the 
four turrets leading to the base of that octagonal pyramid, 
so bold and light in design, which really constitutes the spire. 
Those who are not over stout, and who do not fear dizziness, 
may clamber up still further by ladders to the lantern. 
Goethe accomplished this ascent more than once, for the 
purpose of getting rid of a constitutional tendency to vertigo, 
and carved his name upon the stone walls of the turrets, but 
time has already worn away some of the letters. 

It is with difficulty that one passes the crown, and with 
still more that other architectural wonder the rose. Here the 
spire appears like a needle crossed with horizontal bars, 

k 2 



164 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the arrangement forming a sort of cross. This part being 
passed, there is, in the absence of cross bars of metal or 
projecting corners of stone, but little support for the adven- 
turous climber, who is compelled to creep up by his hands 
and feet. Finally, the spire terminates in a button which 
is less than a foot and a half in diameter. Formerly it served 
as a pedestal for a statue of the Virgin, but it is now merely 
the end of the lightning conductor that terminates the 
edifice. But it was here, upon this button, at the height of 
466 feet above the level of the cathedral square, that the 
soldier used to take his gymnastic exercise. The people 
assembled in the cathedral close watched him with the most 
painful excitement, holding their breath, and trembling with 
horror, while the man at the time was standing on his head 
on the button, his legs in the air, announcing to the two 
banks of the Rhine, to France and Germany, that his feat 
was successfully acccomplished. 

This was not the first time, however, that it had been 
done; for in the eighteenth century, according to the 
chronicle of the cathedral, a German chimney-sweeper 
climbed up to the button, and stood upright upon it. At 
that time there was no lightning rod running up at the sides, 
and the attempt was considered a most daring one. Rose- 
Marie Varnhagen, a romance writer, has made the event 
the crowning incident of a very excellent novel. On the 
day of the inauguration of the Strasbourg Railway, the feat 
was repeated, and in this instance the amateur saluted from 
his lofty perch the balloon which was set off in honour of 
the occasion, and which passed quite close to him. 

In earlier times a gentleman made a bet that he would 
walk round the balustrade of the platform, at which, as we 
said, all prudent persons with ordinary heads will first rest a 



MODERN ACROBATS. 1 65 

short time, and then retrace their steps. To walk on the 
parapet of the platform at this dizzy height was a terrible 
undertaking. The man, who was accompanied by a faithful 
dog, proceeded on his march, but being suddenly seized 
with giddiness he made a false step. His dog, faithful to 
him in death, sprang after him ; and in memory of this act of 
devotion, the image of the generous animal is carved on one 
of the sides of the monument which the friends of the fool- 
hardy man erected to his memory. Further, we read of a 
young man of a good family in Strasbourg, who indulged 
in similar dangerous diversions. He tied his feet together, 
and thus fettered, and helpless in case of accident, amused 
himself by leaping from the platform up to the parapet, at 
the imminent risk of being precipitated head foremost upon 
the pavement below. 

" Love laughs at locksmiths," and Love never laughed 
more heartily at them than in the case of. the daughter of 
the Earl of Gowrie, whose castle was in the north of Scot- 
land. The Earl had made a young man prisoner, and held 
him in bondage in a tower which stood isolated by a space 
of about ten feet from the main buildings of the castle. The 
young lady regarded the prisoner, whom she saw daily at the 
barred window of his chamber, with that compassionate 
sympathy, which, on Dryden's authority, " melts from pity 
into love." An intimacy soon sprang up between the 
youthful pair, messages were exchanged, and in the course 
of time there were frequent interviews — the young lady 
obtaining access to the tower through the help of the old 
Highlander who kept the keys. One evening, before the 
castle-gates were closed, she contrived to glide round to 
the tower. The old nurse, who had not been taken 
into confidence, observed her, and went at once to betray 



1 66 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the love affair, which, had she only been consulted about 
it, she would have been but too happy to promote. The 
Countess of Gowrie at once went in search of her daughter. 
The young lady, who received timely warning of her 
mother's approach, would certainly have been caught had 
she attempted to return by the usual way. It was now 
evening also, and all the back entrances were locked and 
guarded. There was only one course open to her. She 
mounted up to the summit of the tower, and from its 
battlement made the splendid leap of nine feet four inches 
across the space which divided the tower from the castle, 
and landed safely within the main building. She at once 
repaired to her room, and lay down on her bed to await the 
event. Meanwhile, her mother, after searching all over the 
tower and the castle, came to her daughter's sleeping room, 
and found her peacefully reclining on her pillow. The young 
lady was of course astonished at a visit at that untimely 
hour; and the Countess was overcome with confusion for 
having for a moment entertained unwarrantable suspicions. 
The " Maiden's Leap," as it is called to the present day, 
was over a space sixty feet deep. It may be added that at 
their next interview, the lovers decided that the leap was 
too dangerous to be repeated, and that their only resource 
was to ran away together — which second feat was achieved 
with success equal to that which attended the first 



CHAPTER VII. 

ROPE DANCERS IN ANCIENT TIMES AND IN THE MIDDLE 

AGES. 

Fetes of Bacchus — Varieties of Rope Dancing — The most accomplished 
Dancers— The Caracalla Medal — Terence —Elephants on the 
Tight Rope — Rope Dancers of the Lower Empire — The Voleur 
under Charles V. — The Genoese in the time of Charles VI. — 
Progresses of Sovereigns —Dancers at Venice. 

Jumping depends not merely on suppleness ; it is necessary 
that the ground on which the leaper stands should furnish 
a sufficient support, for without this the projection which 
is the result of the sudden extension of the lower members 
could not take place, or at least its effect would be much 
weakened. Leaping, then, demands a sufficient basis ; upon 
shifting sand it is impossible, while on the other hand, if the 
material be elastic, the reaction caused by the effort of 
jumping favours the movement of projection, as for in- 
stance, when a leap is taken from a spring-board. The 
same is the result when it is taken from a tight-rope. 
Evolutions on the tight-rope have been performed from 
the very earliest times, and their origin is hidden in the 
darkness of ages of which we have no record. Some his- 
torians refer us to the times immediately succeeding the 
Deluge for the commencement of this practice, but we 
content ourselves with the first mention of it among the 
Greeks. We read of rope-dancing shortly after the time 
of the institution of the feasts of Bacchus (b.c. 1345). 



1 68 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 




The numerous terms which their language possessed to 
designate the dancers on ropes proves that they were ac- 
quainted with several varieties of them. Some, suspended 
by the feet, threw themselves over the rope as a wheel 
round its axis. Others leaning on it with the stomach, the 
arms and legs extended in the air, slid down from an ele- 
vation with the rapidity of an 
arrow. Some ran upon a rope 
stretched obliquely. Others, 
walking upon a horizontal cord, 
leapt and threw somersaults 
from it with as much confidence 
as if they had been on the 
ground. They kept themselves 
in their place, sometimes with 
and sometimes without a ba- 
lancing pole, and the rope was 
either slack or tight. 
Among the nations of antiquity, the Cyzicenians, in- 
habitants of Cyzicos in Asia Minor, are mentioned as the 
most able schcenobates, or rope-walkers. Spon, the an- 
tiquary, has described one of their medals struck in honour 
of Caracalla, representing on one side the head of that 
emperor, and on the other men, standing upright upon 
obliquely stretched ropes, whom that archaeologist believes 
to be rope-dancers. His opinion is confirmed by a passage 
in an old geographer, who says that, " This people and their 
neighbours were so adroit in leaping and dancing on the 
rope, that they surpassed in this game all the other nations, 
and boasted themselves the inventors and the first masters 
of the art." 

Caracalla appears therefore to have taken pleasure in these 



Rope Dancers. 
(From an ancient medaL) 



ROPE DANCERS IN ANCIENT TIMES. 1 69 

exercises, or at least in looking at them, for without doubt 
the people referred to, in presenting him with this medal, 
meant to flatter his tastes. In fact, the Romans were 
enthusiastic about this sport, which dates, according to them, 
from the introduction of the scenic games, 390 years from 
the founding of Rome. Among them it was practised at 
first in the open air, but afterwards chiefly in the theatres. 
Rope-dancing became one of the favourite amusements of 




Rope Dancer. (From a picture at Herculaneum.) 

the imperial people, who, for this spectacle, neglected more 
noble accomplishments. We know the mishap of the comic 
poet Terence. The Hecyra was about to be represented, 
when the news being spread that the rope-dancers had 
come, the spectators immediately left the theatre en masse, 
preferring the grosser exhibition to the representation of 
character and passion. 

At Rome the rope-dancers varied their exercises in a 
hundred different ways, as is shown in the series of pictures 
found at Herculaneum, which represent Bacchantes, dances 



I70 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

of satyrs, and many other scenes. The performers bear the 
thyrsus or Bacchic staff, which served them in place of a 
balance, and wear caps of hide, no doubt as a protection to 
their heads in case of accident. It was the philosophic 
emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who, having witnessed the fall 
of a child from the tight-rope, ordained that mattresses 
should thereafter be placed beneath. At a later period cords 
were stretched under the dancers, a custom which, as the 
Latin authors inform us, was continued down to the age of 
Diocletian. 

The Romans, not content with the exhibition of men on 
the tight rope, instructed animals in the art. Under Tibe- 
rius a special kind of spectacle took place at the Floral 
games, elephants walking on the tight-rope. During the 
reign of Nero a Roman horseman, mounting one of these, 
drove him without mishap over this flexible roadway. Pliny 
speaks of gladiatorial combats at which appeared " elephants 
which performed a number of astonishing tricks, throwing 
swords in the air, fighting among themselves like the gladia- 
tors, dancing the Pyrrhic dance, and walking on the tight- 
rope." They also, the same author informs us, came down 
backwards. 

As time advanced, the heads of the Church strongly 
protested against such a dangerous custom. According to 
the Christian doctrine the life of a man, however infamous, 
is too valuable to be exposed to useless risk. The time 
was past when the circus was drenched with the blood of 
gladiators for the gratification of the idlers in the galleries. 
At the period we speak of there were no mattresses ranged 
along the course of the cord to break the dancer's fall ; the 
ropes were extended at unheard of heights, and in a sloping 
form. " It was impossible to stand upon them," says 



ROPE DANCERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 171 

St Chrysostom, "the performers must either ascend or 
descend. " One ill-directed glance, the slightest lapse of 
attention, and the acrobat was precipitated into the 
orchestra. The dancers who performed before the Greeks 
of the Lower Empire were most skilful. " Some," adds the 
pious author, " after having walked along the rope, took off 
their clothes and put them on again while on this slender 
footing, as if they were in their bed-rooms, a spectacle which 




Rope Dancer. (From a picture at Herculaneum.) 

many did not dare to look at, and which others could only 
behold with fear and trembling." 

At the breaking up of the Roman power rope-dancing 
was not discontinued, and the historian finds it flourishing 
among the Franks at the great markets and fairs, which were 
then almost the only occasions of people assembling in large 
numbers. Those who practised the art always came in the 
troupe of one who exhibited wild beasts, or of some charla- 
tan who vended drugs. In the time of St. Louis we remark 
that a certain minstrel made a perilous ascent ; and later, 



IJ2 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

under Charles V., there was at Paris a man whose ability 
was such that he performed tumbling feats, threw somersaults 
in the air, and did many other things which had been deemed 
impossible. He stretched very slender cords from the towers 
of Notre-Dame to the palace, and even further, and from 
these leapt and tumbled with such boldness and rapidity that 
he seemed to fly — hence the name he received of Voleur, or 
flyer. It is the learned Christine of Pisa who narrates these 
facts in her " Book of Deeds and Good Manners of the Wise 
King Charles." She went, like all the Parisians of the day, 
to see this gymnast, and affirms, as we all do when we witness 
an extraordinary spectacle, ignorant of what may yet be 
accomplished, and forgetting the marvellous feats of the 
past, " that there never could be the equal of this man in his 
profession." " He performed thus many times before the 
court," continues the lady, "and when the king heard 
some time after that this Voleur had fallen from the cords, 
and was bruised to death, ' Certes,' said he, ' it was impossible 
that a man who presumed so much upon his skill, his light- 
ness, and his experience, should not have a misfortune in 
the end/ " When Isabel of Bavaria, the young wife of the 
successor of this monarch, Charles VI., made her solemn 
entrance into Paris, important fetes were arranged for her 
reception, among which were the astonishing feats of a 
Genoese rope-dancer. About a month before the arrival of 
the queen this " ingenious inventor " had stretched a rope 
from the great tower of Notre-Dame to the bridge of 
St. Michael. " This rope," says Froissart, who describes all 
these fetes in his usual minute style, " reached high above 
the houses. When the queen and her ladies passed into the 
great street of Notre-Dame the Genoese set out from the 
scaffolding, and, singing as he proceeded, walked all the 



ROPE DANCERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 173 

length of the street through which the cortege passed ; and 
when the darkness came down he took in each hand a 
lighted torch, which he brandished as he went. Men and 
women," says the old chronicler, " marvelled how he could 
do it ; and the gymnast, always carrying the flaming torches, 
which could be seen from every part of Paris, and from 
the distance of three leagues beyond the walls, performed 
such feats of every kind, that he and his agility were much 
praised." 

According to the " Chronicles of St. Denis," the rope was 
extended between Notre-Dame and the Pont du Change. 
It was hung with blue taffeta, ornamented with gold fleurs 
de lis, and " upon it was a man very light and agile, in the 
guise of an angel," who came from the towers of Notre- 
Dame straight to the bridge, and then entered at the hour 
when the queen passed, and appearing before her put a 
beautifiil crown upon his head! 

These entertainments came to be the fashion in con- 
nection with the entrances of monarchs into cities. Edward 
VI. of England, passing through London to be crowned, 
stopped before St. Pauls churchyard, where, according to 
the " Archseologia Britannica," a rope as thick as the cable 
of a ship was stretched from the turrets of St. Pauls, and 
kept fastened by an anchor at its extremity. As the king 
approached, a foreigner, a native of Aragon, descended the 
rope — on his stomach, head foremost, his arms and legs 
being extended in the air — with the speed of an arrow shot 
from a bow, from the turrets to the ground. When he 
raised himself up, he advanced towards the king, bent his 
knee, and after speaking a few words, took his leave. He 
then ascended his rope to over the middle of the church- 
yard, where he performed some wonderful leaps and gam- 



:I74 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

bols, with a cord which he had round him. Having taken 
it in his hand, he fastened it to the cable, attached himself 
.to it by the right leg, and remained hanging in this fashion, 
until getting upon the cable again, he undid the knots, and 
descended. 

This performance was repeated, perhaps by the same 
person, during the following reign; for, according to 
*Holinshed, among the entertainments given in London 
at the reception of Philip of Spain, husband of Queen 
Mary, a man descended, head foremost, upon a rope 
-attached to one of the turrets of St. Pauls, not holding 
on by either his hands or his feet; but it is added that the 
feat afterwards cost him his life. 

In France, the provinces were, in regard to these per- 
formances, not far behind the capital. Jehan d'Authon, 
that grave chronicler who followed Louis XII. in all his 
travels, has not scorned to transmit to posterity the name 
of a young performer of promise, George Menustre, who 
attempted the wildest flights in his gymnastics. At Macon, 
when performing on a rope placed between the great tower 
of the castle and the clock tower of the Jacobins, he hung 
suspended by the feet, and afterwards by the teeth, 160 feet 
above the ground. An earlier historian had already told 
of a marvellous performance by a Portuguese at Milan 
before the ambassadors of Charles VII. of France. 

Each nation preferred foreigners for acrobatic feats. 
The Londoners, for example, chose a native of Aragon, 
the Parisians a Genoese, and the Italians a Portuguese. 
These last were, however, so rich in their own supply of 
artists, and so naturally agile themselves, that they had no 
need of acrobats from abroad. Venice had its rope-dancers, 
who regularly performed their feats on the day of the feast 




ROPE DANCER AT VENICE. 

<(Erom a picture of the Period.) 



ROPE DANCERS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 1 77 

of St. Mark, the patron of the town, in presence of the 
doge, the senate, and the foreign ambassadors. During the 
time of the carnival similar performances took place, but 
here the real merit of rope dancing was not always appa- 
rent, for the performers were often sustained by artificial 
means. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ROPE DANCERS IN MODERN TIMES. 

Decline and Revival of Rope Dancing — Turks in Favour — Hall, the 
Favourite at Charles II. 's Court — Competitions of Artists under 
Louis XIV. — Dancers at the Fair of St. Germain — Nicolet — The 
Empire — • America — Bell-ringers of Seville — The Natives of 
Tahiti 

While Italy was producing these artists, in France rope 
dancing had become debased and degraded — a fortunate 
result due no doubt to the great movement of the Re- 
naissance. During the re-awakening of thought in the 
reaction against the rudeness and the coarse pleasures of 
the middle ages, mountebanks and jugglers were not held 
in high esteem; and the supremacy of mind succeeded 
to the worship of matter. In the reign of Henri II., how- 
ever, a clever Turk made his appearance, and won applause 
by his performance with a basin upon two ropes, the one 
extended beneath the other so as to permit of his passing 
between them, executing marvellous feats the while. Sauval 
is the authority who speaks of this dancer, drawing upon 
the records of the historian of the time, who professes great 
admiration for the performance. Whatever his merits, is 
it necessary to agree with M. Fournel, who, with a solemnity 
that is very comical, says, "This Turk was one of the 
restorers of the haute icole> and we partly owe to him that 
revival of the tight rope which was contemporaneous with 
the renaissance of letters?" 



ROPE DANCERS TN MODERN TIMES. 179 

We notice that from this time many Turks appeared at 
public shows in France, Italy, and England. The Turks 
were then regarded as bugbears in Europe, and were held 
in such detestation that the popes launched anathemas 
and preached up holy wars against them. A Turk was in 
himself a curiosity, but if he was also a tight-rope dancer, 
and thus a curiosity in a double sense, he was all the more 
certain to " draw." For this reason the purveyors of public 
spectacles made no scruple at this time of producing jugglers 
who were Turks only in appearance, just as later managers 
have produced savages who never saw any wilderness more 
uncommon than an Irish bog, and troupes of (City) Arabs 
much less unsophisticated than the simpletons who came 
to stare at them. 

Was that a Turk of pure blood whom Bonnet mentions 
in his " Histoire de la Danse ? " Bonnet saw him at Naples 
dancing on a rope extended across a wide street from the 
windows of the fifth floor, and using no balance-pole or 
counter-weights, though he had mattresses spread on the 
street beneath the whole range of the cord. Another Turk 
is mentioned whom the same author saw at the fair of 
St. Germain at the end of the seventeenth century, and who 
proved himself a most accomplished acrobat, performing 
wonders as a high leaper. He lost his life at the fair of 
Troyes, where one of his companions, an Englishman, also 
a famous dancer, greased the oblique rope upon which the 
Turk had to descend backwards preserving an upright 
attitude. Of course the fall was at once fatal. " It is com- 
mon," adds Bonnet, gravely, " to witness similar plots, the 
results of envy against those who excel in the arts. His- 
tory, especially in connection with painting and sculpture, 
furnishes us with many examples," 

L 2 



l80 WONDEkS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

The eminence of the Turks as performers upon the 
rope remained for a long time undiminished. In London, 
in the reign of George II., a follower of the Prophet, 
ostensibly at least, did many marvels — ^such as juggling with 
oranges, without the assistance of a pole; but Strutt, the 
great English authority on such matters, says that the en- 
thusiasm which he aroused was much diminished when, one 
of the oranges having fallen, it was perceived that the ball 
was really of lead, and was only painted in imitation of the 
well-known fruit No doubt, however, the difficulty was the 
juggling, and the genuineness of the fruit, like the nation- 
ality of the performer, was a secondary matter. 

But the prestige of England as an acrobat-producing 
country did not require to be upheld by Turkey. In the 
reign of Charles II. a native rope-dancer — Jacob Hall, 
whose portrait is preserved in Grainger's collection — won 
golden opinions in London. He was one of the hand- 
somest men one could see, uniting in his form the grace of 
Adonis with the strength of Hercules. He enjoyed much 
good luck, even at the court and for some time " balanced 
the king" in the heart of the tender Castlemain, afterwards 
the Duchess of Cleveland, as may be seen in " Hamilton's 
Memoirs," and the chronicles and ballads of the time. 

France was not behind England, and the age of 
Louis XIV. would not have been complete if the art of 
rope dancing had been at fault when the other arts flou- 
rished so conspicuously. But these mortals, accustomed to 
walk in the air, had very high pretensions, and encroached 
upon the province of the actors, who, consequently, made 
loud complaints. The drama certainly deserves greater 
patronage than acrobatic feats; and decrees, which often 
required to be renewed, confined them to the category ol 



ROPE DANCERS IN MODERN TIMES. l8l 

shows at fairs — those of St. Germain, St. Ovide, and 
St. Laurent, especially the first, being the chief theatres of 
such exploits. Gradually a new system began to be in- 
troduced, and these entertainments were conducted on the 
principle of association. Individuals formed themselves 
into troupes, each member of which laboured for the good 
of all. The rope-dancers were not merely hirelings in the 
pay of an entrepreneur, they were parts of a public company. 

Among the last of the unattached performers we may 
mention Trevelin, the first who danced upon the rope at 
Paris without a balance at the commencement of the seven- 
teenth century, and another who, in 1649, fell into the 
Seine head foremost in crossing his lofty line from the 
tower of Nesle to that of Grand Prevot "He had, per- 
haps, forgotten," says M. Fournel, " to eat beforehand that 
root which serves to fortify performers of this kind against 
giddiness and stupor ; but he had at least the prudence, on 
which he had afterwards reason to congratulate himself, to 
have his rope extended above the river." Bonnet also 
speaks of the marvellous herb referred to, and even states 
that the chamois and wild-goat browse upon it before 
climbing to the summits of the cliffs among which they 
dwell. 

The companies acknowledged to be the most remark- 
able at the fair of St. Germain were those of Allard, of 
Bertrand, and of Maurice Vondrebeck. The last, as his 
name indicates, was a native of Holland. It is he, without 
doubt, who figures in a series of engravings, the work of 
Bonnard, in the " Bibliotheque Imperial." The pictures 
represent the great feats of two couples of dancers, Dutch 
and English, and a single Turk. According to M. Four- 
nel, " They danced upon the cord armed from head to foot, 



1 82 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

with their legs linked together, and their feet sunk in sabots 
or boots. They went through the flag trick, played the 
violin upon their back, upon their head, between their 
legs, and had with them monkeys, rats, and serpents, that 
imitated the cleverest feats of the rope-dancers." 

The tradititions of the St. Germain fair and of other 
places not less frequented were continued by Nicolet, an 
exhibitor of marionettes, down to the eighteenth century. 
This man, who has made a name for himself in the art 
he professed, had a maxim by which he always squared 
his conduct before the public. It was never to astound 
the audience, but to hold them in suspense by a series oi 
efforts, the gradation of which should be judiciously managed. 
With him every evolution led to another more astonishing, 
and the series closed with the most arduous and wonderful 
feat he knew. It was thus that arose the popular saying, 
" De plus en plus forty comme chez Nicolet ! y It was not, 
however, to his intelligence that this saying could apply, 
for Nicolet was not remarkable for his sense. One day, 
he happened to pass by one of his musicians, who, sitting 
in his place in the orchestra, was letting his instrument lie 
idle, while the others were playing. 

"What are you doing there, and why don't you play 
your part ? " asked Nicolet. 

" I am counting the rests," answered the musician. 

"Oh, indeed!" cried Nicolet, overwhelming the man 
with abuse, " I have not engaged you to count the rests. 
Play like the others, or I shall dismiss you 1 " 

It might be said that there was no occasion for his 
putting himself to expense, as he only directed wooden 
comedians. But it is here that ? esprit is most necessary, 
for actors who cannot speak are unable to correct the im- 



ROPE DANCERS IN MODERN TIMES. 1 83 

perfections of the piece. Nicolet, however, had a soul 
above marionettes, and his ambition was eventually 
crowned with success ; he bought land upon which he built 
a theatre with real actors of flesh and blood, and also with 
rope dancers. Having had the honour of performing at 
Marly before Louis XV., in 1772, he obtained the privilege 
of calling his theatre "Le Theatre des Grands Danseurs 
du Roi." 

From this establishment went forth a woman whose 
boldness and agility were the glory of the First Empire. 
The present generation has seen her — her hair now white — 
taking again the perilous road of the tight rope, though with 
less briskness than in her early days. The medals of St. 
Helena could alone tell us what Madame Sacqui was, when, 
in her blooming youth, and in the height of her fame, she 
celebrated in her own fashion the triumphs of the French 
armies, representing the shock of battle, the taking of towns, 
and the passage of the St. Bernard. We should have seen 
her at Tivoli upon a sloping rope, sixty feet above ground, 
throwing herself forward and darting to the tower amid 
splendid fireworks and appropriate decorations, then bound- 
ing back from the cloud of smoke like a Homeric goddess, 
reposing finally in an apotheosis of Bengal lights. 

This line of " business " being once traced out, women 
prosecuted it with ardour. Admirers of these amusements 
still remember La Malaga, " a young person," says M. 
Fournel, "with a sweet and pensive countenance, full of 
expression, who danced with the wings of a sylph, and the 
quiet graces sung by Horace." This lady had a daughter 
who took to walking upon the rope before she could walk 
upon the ground, and who made her debut at Versailles 
in 1 814, before an assembly of kings. It was in honour 



I$4 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

of the allied sovereigns that she executed her wonderful 
ascent of 200 feet above one of the lakes. 

The women must not, however, make us forget the ar- 
tists of the other sex; Furioso, for instance, who was still 
living at the beginning of the present century, and who was 
one of the most astounding acrobats mentioned in history. 
Furioso's performance was like his name— tempestuous, 
whirling, diabolical. One can appreciate the rage which took 
possession of him when he was surpassed by two novices 
at the hall of Montansier, upon the very theatre of his own 
exploits, but the public were not long in returning to their alle- 
giance, when they heard that on the occasion of the approach- 
ing Saint Napoleon fete, he was to cross the Seine upon one 
rope from the Pont de la Concorde to the Pont Royal. 

This feat was considered too dangerous, and the police 
opposed it — a striking illustration of the primitive condition 
of society in 18 10! Since then what progress has been 
made ! Niagara, with its marvellous cataract, has been 
traversed upon a tight-rope many feet above the surface of 
the water, the acrobat walking, running, and dancing along 
his slender pathway. Blondin, who performed this daring 
feat, must be considered one of the greatest rope dancers 
— if not the very greatest — who ever lived. It is almost 
unnecessary to tell the present generation of the triumphs 
of this consummate artist, for he is still among us, and has 
been seen on his giddy road in almost every part of the 
world. The varieties of the entertainment — if the word 
may be used in such an application — which he places before 
his patrons surpass anything we read of in the ana of the 
acrobats of past times. There is but one Niagara, but 
Blondin's rope can be stretched in equally dangerous po- 
sitions, and his bold freaks can be played as well over the 



ROPE DANCERS IN MODERN TIMES. 185 

heads of ten thousand spectators at the Crystal Palace as 
over the awful waters of the great cataract. He can walk 
or run along the cord ; he can dine and play the fiddle on 
it ; he can traverse it with a heavy man on his back ; he 
can wheel a barrow before him ; nay, he has even crossed 
the abyss on a bicycle. There is nothing within the 
bounds of his art that can daunt this quick-eyed, steady- 
limbed, bold-hearted man, who has no rivals, and, in his 
greater achievements, no imitators. 

It would be well if the same could be said of another 
department of acrobatics, which may well be assigned a 
place here on account of its origin in our own days, though, 
strictly speaking, it should be found noticed elsewhere. 
Trapeze-flying was introduced by the great Leotard, and at 
once became one of the most popular items on the pro- 
grammes at the lower-class places of amusement all over 
Europe. The performer swings himself from one side of a 
hall to the other by means of a bar, attached to two ropes, 
suspended from the roof. At intervals between the furthest 
points are other trapezes, which in turn are thrown to hirn in 
his passage through the air, and he darts from one to the 
other at great heights from the stage, so timing his move- 
ments that as soon as he leaves one he is in a position to 
grasp the other. These evolutions are rendered more at- 
tractive to the vulgar — who delight in exhibitions which 
combine daring with danger to life — by every kind of 
somersault which can increase the acrobat's risk of breaking 
his neck or his limbs. Numerous accidents have con- 
sequently occurred to athletes whose skill has not beeK 
equal to their foolhardiness ; and, as the " art " appears to 
be dying out, it is to be hoped that improvement in the 
public taste will prevent its revival 



1 86 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

The essential point in rope dancing is the maintenance 
of the centre of gravity. In order to keep erect and 
steady on the rope the ancient tumblers always carried a 
pole, furnished with a ball of lead at each extremity, and 
this balancer they directed sometimes to the right, some- 
times to the left, according as they wished to change the 
position of their centre of gravity. But the new school 
have long since been able to dispense with the use of this 
safeguard, and performers now climb to the greatest heights, 
their arms free and unembarassed by any burden. Some 
content themselves with fixing the eyes upon a distant point 
in the same plane as the rope, and for the rest trust them- 
selves to Providence and to their suppleness, and the 
strength of the aerial thread that sustains them in space. 

The same confidence animates the young Spaniards, 
who, on certain fete days, mount into the clock towers of 
the cathedral, and ring a full peal. While the regular bell- 
ringers are reposing, these amateurs hang on to the bells, 
throw them forward with all their force, and follow them in 
their wonderful leaps. In our churches they sound the 
bells calmly and regularly; but in Spain every man who 
offers may exercise his skill ; and the duration of the ringing 
depends upon the caprice, or rather upon the strength and 
patience of the ringers. The reader may imagine what an 
uproar there is when all the bells of a cathedral are being 
banged about in this original and furious manner. If 
one enters, for instance, the Giralda at Seville, when the 
twenty bells are swinging at the same time, the noise is 
enough to give one a headache. The spectacle, too, of 
the ringers hanging in space, and grasping the bell with 
their arms, is a very singular one. "The first time that 
I was witness of this operation," says a French tourist, 



ROPE DANCERS IN MODERN TIMES, 189 

w I was passing near the church El Salvador del Mundo ; 
people were looking up in the air, and one old man cried 
aloud near me, i Those are not men, they are devils. 7 
This caused me to look up like the others, and I believed 
at first that some unfortunate man had entangled himself in 
the rope that is used for putting the bell in motion. I soon 
found out, however, that it was a matter of sport Another 
ringer appeared in his turn, suspended in the air, or holding 
the bell by the ears, or by the wooden framework, and, 
following it in its movement, found himself with his head 
downwards towards the square, when it again entered the 
belfry." 

The inhabitants of Tahiti take pleasure in suspending 
and balancing themselves on a long rope attached to the 
top of some palm-tree that overhangs the sea. They are 
primitive beings, accustomed to climbing to great heights, 
and if while indulging in this amusement they have a fall, 
they only find themselves in their favourite element. They 
are as much accustomed to water as to dry land, and 
move with as much freedom and rapidity in the one as in 
the other. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SWIMMING. 

Swimming in Ancient Times — Hero and Leander — Crossing the 
Hellespont — Lord Byron achieves the Feat — His Powers as a 
Swimmer — His Great Feat at Venice — -Importance of the Art 
among the Ancients — Roman Women — Aquatic Pantomimes— 
Flavius Josephus. 

A swimmer is simply a runner who > so. to speak, has changed 
his ground, and between the two exercises there is only 
a difference of the elements. Aristotle considers them as 
two members of a family, or rather as one and the same 
exercise, demanding great nervous and muscular power and 
flexibility. 

Formerly, as indeed at all times, the best swftnmers 
were the inhabitants of sea-coasts and islands, or peoples 
accustomed to traverse the ocean for the purposes of com- 
merce. The Phoenicians and the Carthaginians were very 
expert in the art, which was held in high esteem by all 
ancient nations. The Persians were the only exceptions to 
the general rule, for, as they rendered an idolatrous worship 
to their rivers, they did not dare to plunge their hands, 
much less their whole bodies, into them. Among the 
Greeks, the Athenians, and especially the inhabitants of 
the isle of Delos, were considered the best swimmers. The 
skill of the latter has passed into a proverb. Socrates, not 
being able to explain certain passages in Heraclitus the 
philosopher which seemed to be obscure and conflicting, 



SWIMMING. 



igi 



exclaims, " To find one's way amid so many reefs would 
puzzle even a swimmer of the Isle of Delos." 

Leander could not boast of the famous island as the 
place of his birth, but he was none the less a great swimmer. 
He was smitten, as every one knows, by the charms of a 
young and beautiful priestess named Hero, who lived at 
Sestos, upon the Hellespont, on the European shore, while 
he himself dwelt at Abydos, on the opposite or Asiatic 
coast. Guided by a beacon-light which the young priestess 
was careful to kindle on the summit of her tower, Leander 
swam the Hellespont every even- 
ing, spent some time with his 
beloved, and returned again in the 
same manner. When the wind 
blew with too much violence, 
Hero sheltered the flickering light 
with her robe, for she knew 
Leander felt no fear so long as 
that flame invited him onwards. 
But on one fatal night she had 
forgotten this precaution, and perhaps had altogether 
neglected to kindle her fire. She was cruelly punished, 
for on the following morning, at day-break, she saw 
gleaming upon the shore the white limbs of Leander, 
whose dead body had been cast up by the waves upon the 
beach. The ill-fated youth, losing sight of the beacon on 
the tower, and unable to contend against the darkness and 
the currents, had yielded up his latest breath to the waves. 
In her horror and despair, Hero threw herself into the 
sea, inviting the fate to which her lover had succumbed. 

It is somewhat curious to speculate why Leander, instead 
of swimming the Hellespont, did not simply paddle across 




Hero and Leander. 
(From a medal.) 



192 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

in a boat. This mode of transit would certainly not have 
been so cheap, but it would have been much less dangerous 
and fatiguing. It may be said in answer that perhaps the 
youth was anxious not to attract attention to his nightly 
passage, and thereby publish his amour with the fair lady 
to the world. But however this may be, it is sufficient, upon 
the authority of Ovid and Musaeus, to state that it was 
Leander's practice to swim to and from the opposite bank 
where Hero lived, and as the narratives of poets and 
romancers need not of necessity be received as articles of 
faith, each may decide as he pleases upon the details of the 
fine old story. 

The important point is not to know whether Leander 
really crossed the Hellespont by swimming, but whether 
others have been able to do so — whether, in fact, the feat 
is practicable. The distance from Abydos to Sestos was 
thirty stades, or three miles six furlongs. That Leander 
swam so far twice a night it is difficult to believe, and in 
view of these figures, many have at once relegated the 
touching tale to the domain of fable. Others, however, 
attempt to prove that it is not a fiction, and, according to 
them, as it was only natural that Leander should seek to 
shorten his journey as much as possible, he walked along 
the sea-shore till he came straight opposite the tower in 
which Hero lived. By good luck the width of the Helles- 
pont is much diminished at this point, being only seven 
stades, or about 1,300 yards. But none of the critics who 
calmly discussed by their firesides the probable authenticity 
of this adventure showed an inclination to find out whether 
it was possible to swim the Hellespont by attempting to 
repeat the feat of Leander. This was, however, the best 
means of removing all doubt as to the story, and setting to 



SWIMMING. I93 

rest another difficulty upon which there had been much 
discussion, namely, in what sense the epithet by which 
Homer characterises the Hellespont (apeiros, infinite, with- 
out limit) is to be understood. Among the heroes of an- 
tiquity we find only one Curtius leaping into the chasm, 
and the one man who was ready to risk his life in attempt- 
ing Leander's feat was Lord Byron. The circumstances, 
however, were different, for while as a reward of his adven- 
ture Leander won Hero's love, the English poet only caught 
a fever, which confined him several days to his bed. 

w 'Twere hard to say who fared the best, 

Sad mortals, thus the gods still plague you t 
He lost his labour, I my jest, 
For he was drowned, and I've the ague." 

With respect to the second matter, the use of the word 
apeiros in reference to the Hellespont, Byron says, in a note 
to his " Bride of Abydos," that " The wrangling about the 
epithet ' the broad Hellespont/ or * the boundless Helles- 
pont/ whether it means one or the other, or what it means 
at all, has fallen beyond the possibility of detail. I have 
even heard it disputed on the spot, and not foreseeing a 
speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with 
swimming across it in the meantime, and probably may 
again before the point is settled. Indeed, the question as 
to the truth of the * tale of Troy divine/ still continues, 
much of it resting upon the talismanic word apeiros: 
probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a 
coquette has to time; and when he talks of boundless 
means half a mile ; as the coquette, by a figure, when she 
says eternal attachment simply specifies three weeks." 
That is how the sceptical Byron speaks of Homer; how 
the lame poet treats the blind one. 

M 



194 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

It was on the 3rd of May, 1 8 to, that Byron attempted 
this feat, in concert with a friend, Lieutenant Ekenhead. 
He crossed the strait in an hour, the direct distance being 
2,130 yards, although the force of the currents, which drive 
the swimmer far to both right and left, makes the achieve- 
ment equal to a passage of twice or perhaps three times 
the space. An Englishman named Turner subsequently 
attempted to cross the Hellespont from Asia to Europe, but 
after being about twenty-five minutes in the water, found 
the adventure too much for him, and, turning back, re- 
gained the shore, fatigued and breathless. Jealous of the 
success of Byron, who had crossed the strait in the opposite 
direction, Turner, on his return to England, pointed out 
that Byron had performed but the easier part of the 
task, for he had only gone from Europe to Asia, while 
Leander made the double passage— the return being much 
the more difficult of the two, owing to the extreme rough- 
ness of the current. 

The poet attached far too much importance to such 
triumphs to be able to keep silent under an attack like 
this, and, in a powerful reply, dated from Ravenna, 21st 
February, 182 1, the strong swimmer makes great fun of 
Mr. Turner, who denied the possibility of crossing the 
Hellespont because he himself had been unable to do so. 
Mr. Turner's defeat proved only that there was not in 
him the stuff out of which good swimmers are made. As 
to the current being stronger or weaker in one direction 
or the other, Byron knew nothing of the matter, and, 
indeed, did hot trouble himself about it. Again, in 18 18, 
being then at Venice, Mengaldo, an Italian, who was 
attached, in the position of avocat, to the French con- 
sulate there, and was skilled in this exercise, had boasted 



SWIMMING. 195 

that he could beat his lordship. Strangely enough, like 
his antagonist, the Italian was lame, having had both his 
legs broken in the wars of the Empire, but the circum* 
stance is one which Byron has not noticed, though his 
account of the struggle is otherwise perfectly correct. A 
match was made, and the principals, three in number 
(for a friend of Byron's had volunteered to join in the 
adventure), set out from the Isle of Lido, at the mouth 
of the lagoon. From this point they went steadily on 
to Venice — each well up with his neighbours ; but, at 
the entrance to the Grand Canal, which, as every one 
knows, divides the town into two parts, Mengaldo gave in. 
Byron's friend got up as far as the Rialto, when he also 
cried " Hold ! enough !" not so much from exhaustion as 
from being overcome with cold. He had remained four 
hours in the water without quitting it — only taking rest on 
his back, as, in accordance with the conditions agreed upon, 
he was entitled to do. As to Byron, he swam through the 
whole of the Grand Canal, passed Venice, and bravely went 
on his way to one of the islands that lie on the other side of 
the city. He had swum for four hours and twenty minutes, 
and he could, he said, have continued for two hours longer, 
though he was hampered by his clothes. Byron was at this 
time thirty years of age, and his companions about the same 
age. After such an experience, exclaimed he, what could 
make him doubt the exploit of Leander? 

The ancients did not practise the art of swimming for 
pleasure or for the benefit of their health alone, but also 
from a motive which had its origin in one of the principles 
of their religion. We know that the peoples of antiquity 
dreaded above everything the being deprived of the honours 
of sepulture. The fear of perishing in the waves, and 

M 2 



1}6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

having no other tomb than the bottom of the sea or the 
bed of a river, impelled them to practise this exercise with 
more ardour and perseverance than modern swimmers, who 
are not influenced by similar considerations. Speaking on 
this subject the Abbe Amilhon, a member of the Academy 
of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in the eighteenth century, 
says in his "Researches on the Exercise of Swimming 
among the Ancients": — "This prejudice, which rendered 
men more careful of their lives, tended to the benefit of the 
state, in preserving to the country those valuable citizens, 
who, when occasion required, could be of essential service. 
It is, perhaps, partly because of this religious opinion that 
a multitude of illustrious men among the Greeks as well as 
the Romans owe their escape on the sea from the greatest 
perils." 

" The exercise of swimming," adds the same learned 
author, " has not only preserved the lives of many famous 
personages, but it has enabled not a few to perform suc- 
cessfully acts which, had they been unable to swim well, 
they would never have dreamed of attempting." In illus- 
tration of his proposition, the Abbe recalls the history of 
Horatius Codes, who, he says, would never have had the 
hardihood to face the Etruscans upon the bridge leading into 
Rome without perfect confidence in his swimming powers. 
Indeed, as soon as the bridge w r hich he was defending 
was cut down, he jumped into the river, and saved him- 
self by putting these powers in use. He was fully armed, 
but this was in accordance with the custom of the Roman 
soldiers, who swam easily, although burdened with heavy 
panoply. Scipio Africanus, as is reported by Silius Italicus, 
for the encouragement of his soldiers, crossed rivers in 
this way at their head, his cuirass upon his back. Sertorius, 



SWIMMING. 197 

though wounded, swam from one side of the Rhine to the 
other, burdened in the same way. Marius, though old and 
broken down with fatigue, was able to escape the emissaries 
of Sylla by swimming to two ships which he saw from the 
coast. Caesar must have been a powerful swimmer, for at 
the siege of Alexandria he saved his life by his knowledge 
of this exercise, holding his tablets above the water in his 
left hand, and using only his right hand to swim with, while 
he pushed before him with his teeth his military equipage, 
which he did not wish to leave in the hands of his enemies, 
and plunged his head under water from time to time to 
avoid the shower of arrows that followed him. 

The Romans were from their youth accustomed to the 
practice of this useful art. As soon as they had performed 
their exercises in the Campus Martius, they hastened to 
plunge into the waters of the Tiber, and so refresh them- 
selves after the fatigues they had undergone. But this 
custom, like all the other commendable customs of the 
Romans, came in time to be discontinued; and Vegetius, 
who lived during the reign of the emperor Valentinian the 
Young, mourns over the decadence of an art, the utility of 
which, both for cavalry and infantry, he speaks of in the 
highest terms. 

The Roman women were not inferior to the men either 
in strength or courage, and swimming formed part of their 
education, as it did in the case of the young Lacedaemonian 
girls. It was by means of her expertness in swimming that 
Clelia, flying from Porsenna's camp, was able to cross the 
Tiber, and regain the friendly walls of Rome ; and that, at 
a later period, Agrippina contrived to escape from the boat 
in which Nero had placed her. In ancient Greece, the 
women of Macedonia were not less courageous, and never 



1 98 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

bathed except in cold water. Philip of Macedon, finding 
on a certain occasion one of his officers taking a warm 
bath, dismissed him on the spot; and, in order to make him 
blush for his effeminacy, described to him the custom of 
his native women, who used always cold water, even at the 
period of confinement. 

It is not astonishing that swimmers so expert excelled 
in the aquatic exercises, of which Martial in one of his 
epigrams makes mention. " Young girls," he says, " and 
young men, disguised as nymphs, were seen in the water, 
sometimes sporting in a chariot like that of the fabled 
nereids, and grouping themselves in the most varied 
designs. At one time they would bring out the figure of 
a trident ; then interlacing differently, they came together 
again in the shape of an anchor, an oar, or a boat ; this 
last figure, dissolving itself, became all at once transformed 
into the constellation of Castor and Pollux, and to it 
succeeded a sail swollen out with the wind. These 
swimmers, in fact, could do in the water what the panto- 
mimists did by means of their dances in combination, 
representing upon the stage of the theatre a great variety 
of subjects. Such games and fetes in the water could not 
fail to be useful in maintaining the expertness of the 
citizens in swimming, but in the course of time they de- 
generated, and were practised only for immoral purposes." 

Among the barbarous hordes that invaded the Roman 
empire, several are mentioned as excelling in the art of 
swimming, more particularly the Germans. From their 
earliest infancy their children were plunged in a river regu- 
larly once every day, and it was thus that their mothers 
hardened them, and rendered them able to endure the cold 
and bleak winds. The story of Thetis plunging her son 



SWIMMING. 199 

Achilles in the waters of the Styx to render him invulner- 
able, is without doubt only an allegory of the custom which 
formerly prevailed of bathing infants from their birth in the 
coldest rivers and lakes. 

The Gallo-Romans "were especially fond of the exercise, 
but in regard to skill they were beaten by the Franks. We 
read in an ancient chronicle that " the Herules excelled in 
running, the Huns in throwing the javelin, and the Francs 
in swimming." ' 

Among others who practised swimming we must not 
forget the. Jews, of whom the historian Flavius Josephus 
was not the least accomplished. While travelling from 
Jerusalem to Rome, the ship in which he was crossing the 
Mediterranean, and which carried six hundred passengers, 
was wrecked in the Adriatic. Josephus swam all the night. 
" God be praised !" says he, in his autobiography, " at dawn 
we fell in with a ship which took me 011 board, with eighty 
of my companions, who, like myself, had strength to reach 
it." Side by side with this remarkable story, we may 
mention that of the inhabitants of Messina, who, in the 
Carthaginian war against Dionysius of Syracuse, threw 
themselves into the sea, that they might not fall into the 
hands of the general, Hamilcar, and of whom several swam 
safely to the Italian shore. 



CHAPTER X 

SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA. 

A Fight in the Water, an Episode in the History of Florida—The 
Sports of the Tahitians in the time of Cook. 

No nation could boast of having had more indefatigable 
and courageous swimmers than the Indians of the southern 
portions of America at the time of the discovery of that 
vast continent by the Europeans. Among these natives, 
it is to the inhabitants of Florida, at present one of the 
most fertile states of the Union, that the palm ought to 
be awarded. The Floridians were accustomed to fish far 
out at sea, and after maintaining themselves in the water 
by swimming only, they brought back the spoil with them 
when the burden was not too heavy. The women were 
equally clever in the practice of the art, and could swim 
across the widest rivers, carrying their infants on their 
backs, in the same way as, with the lightness of the squirrel, 
they could climb to the tops of the highest trees. 

Florida was discovered by Sebastian Cabot in 1496, but 
he only beheld the country, without setting foot on it Jean 
Ponce de Leon was the first who landed upon this fertile 
soil, in March, 1512 or 1513, and as the date was Palm 
Sunday — the Sabbath of Branches — he gave it the appro- 
priate name of Florida. After him several Spaniards tried 
to penetrate into this new region, but without success. It 
was at this time that a bold adventurer, Ferdinand de Soto, 
appeared before the Emperor Charles V. at Valladolid, and 



SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA. 201 

offered to conquer Florida for the benefit of the Spanish 
monarch, and received permission. Born at Villa-Nueva de 
Barca-Rotta, of noble parents, this bold and ambitious man 
had been, in the year 1533, one of the twelve conquerors of 
Peru, and had returned with great riches, not including the 
magnificent present he had received from the Inca Atahualpa, 
so treacherously treated by the Spaniards. All the others 
of the band, satisfied with their lot, lived peaceably in Spain 
upon the treasures they had plundered from the unhappy 
Peruvians; but Ferdinand de Soto was possessed by the 
demon of adventure and change, and was tormented by the 
recollection that he had not conquered even the smallest 
kingdom for himself, while Hernando Cortez had won 
Mexico, and Pizzaro and Almagro had made themselves 
masters of Peru. Why should not he in his turn carve out 
for himself some country in America? Why should he not 
win for himself the title Conqnestador, or, rather, butcher of 
the Indians? Had he not as much bravery and as few 
scruples as the other adventurers ? It was with these ideas 
that he turned his eyes upon Florida, the right of which 
Charles gave to him — the right that belonged neither to the 
one nor the other. 

The Spanish captain first landed in Florida in the year 
1539, and there committed excesses similar to those that 
had marked the progress of his compatriots in other parts of 
the continent. The Indians in despair hanged themselves 
rather than fall into the hands of the foreigners and become 
their slaves. It is related that one day a Spanish officer, 
rope in hand, arrived at the place where a number of 
Indians had gathered for the purpose of committing suicide, 
and threatened that if they persisted he would hang himself 
along with them. The Indians, terrified, dispersed without 



202 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

attempting to carry out their design, preferring life, however 
painful it might be, to the torture of finding themselves in 
another world in company with one of their tyrants. What 
a suggestive proof of the aversion— of the hatred and horror 
of the Spaniards entertained by those tribes ! Nevertheless^ 
all the Indians did not, like those of whom we have spoken, 
give way to despair and suicide, but defended themselves 
with resolution and bravery, as the historian of their country, 
Garcilasso di Vega, informs us. 

Ferdinand de Soto had entered one of the provinces 
of the country, then called Vitachuco, the cacique of 
governor of which detested the Spaniards and their cruel 
practices. He attempted to draw them into an ambush, 
but the foreigners, made aware of his design, kept them- 
selves on their guard. The cacique, who, according to 
custom, bore the same name as the province and its capital, 
Vitachuco, had assembled on an extensive plain outside the 
city about 10,000 of his subjects, all picked and active 
men, with their feathers so arranged on their heads as to 
make them look almost giants. On a signal agreed upon, 
the Floridians were to have fallen upon the Spaniards, who 
numbered not more than 300 men. Instead, however, of 
waiting, and allowing themselves to be surprised, the clever 
invaders reversed the plan, and commencing the attack, and 
falling upon their enemy, the chief, who was unprepared, was 
surrounded, and unable to offer any resistance. The plain 
on which the Floridians were marshalled was bounded on 
one side by a forest, on the other by two marshes, or rather 
a marsh and a lake. The Indians fought well, but they were 
not able to bear long the assaults of the Spanish cavalry. 
Some sought refuge in the darkness of the forest, others in 
the muddy waters of the marsh, sure that none could pursue 



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SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA. 205 

them into those dangerous retreats. About 900, more 
closely pursued than their companions, leaped into the lake, 
which was nearly a mile broad, and so long that the eye 
could not reach the extremity. The Spaniards, drawing up 
on the bank, harassed the unfortunate beings who would 
not surrender by discharging arrows at them, and shooting 
them down with their muskets. On their side the Floridians 
shot away their last shafts, and such was their determination, 
that they were to be seen three or four abreast swimming 
together, and bearing on their shoulders one of their com- 
rades, who went on shooting until every arrow had been 
discharged. 

These intrepid swimmers continued to resist in this 
manner until night fell, without listening to any proposal as 
to a truce. The Spaniards drew a line of soldiers round the 
lake to prevent the escape of any of the natives under cover 
of the darkness. As soon as one of them made any show 
of approaching the bank, the enemy promised to treat him 
well if he surrendered, but at the same time dragged him up 
only to throw him back again into the water, thus exhausting 
his patience and his strength. The victims, however, were 
even more determined than their butchers, and preferred 
death, they said, to the dominion of the Spaniards. Some 
of them, nevertheless, overcome with fatigue, slowly sought 
the shore and surrendered, and in the morning about fifty 
were out of the water. Others, seeing that their comrades 
were well treated by the enemy, followed their example, but 
only to change their minds again, for, after with difficulty 
reaching the bank, they in many cases returned to the water, 
resolved not to quit it to the last. There were thus some 
who for twenty-four hours were in the lake, swimming all the 
time. 



206 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

On the following day 200 of the Indians gave in their 
submission, " half dead," says Garcilasso di Vega, " swelled 
with the water they had swallowed, and overcome with 
hunger, sleep, and exhaustion." Those who remained all 
surrendered after a little, with the exception of seven, who, 
more intractable than the rest, remained in the water, setting 
their vanquishers at defiance, and crying out that they might 
kill them with exhaustion, but could never compel them to 
give in. They had swum about in this fashion for thirty 
hours without having taken any food, when, surprised at 
such boldness and power of endurance, the Spanish captain 
ordered twelve of his best soldiers to enter the lake and 
bring the seven natives to shore. The command was 
strictly obeyed, and the unhappy Indians were dragged to 
land by their legs, arms, or heads. "Their appearance," 
says the historian, " was most pitiful. They fell upon the 
ground more dead than alive, and in a state in which we 
might imagine men to be who had fought swimming in the 
water for thirty consecutive hours. The Spaniards, some- 
what pitying their sad condition, and admiring their pluck, 
carried them into the town, where they brought them round, 
doing the poor savages more good by their kindness than by 
their medicine." 

There is not in the history of the world — even in the 
annals of Rome — another instance of heroic endurance and 
brave resistance equal to this. Thirty hours of swimming 
and fighting at one and the same time ! The names of those 
who were associated with de Soto in his foolish and criminal 
enterprise have been recorded, but who can tell us those of 
the noble patriots of Florida ? The Spaniards were attracted 
to their country only by the hope of pillage, their sole aim 
being the discovery of mines of gold and silver. One fact 



SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA. 207 

recorded by Garcilasso di Vega proves well the extent 
of their greed. Immediately after landing, a garrison had 
been left on the sea-shore, while the body of the little 
army set off towards the north in search of adventure. 
When a place had been found suitable for encampment, 
the general hastened to those who had been left behind to 
inform them of the fact, and order them to join the army. 
What was the first thought of the garrison men as they 
beheld their comrades returning ? To speak of the general 
under whose banner they were gathered ? To inquire into 
the state of the army? Not at all. They only asked their 
brothers in arms whether gold had been found in these new 
regions in any quantity. " Thus," says the historian, who is 
horrified at such a trait, " the thirst for the precious metals 
had such a sway over the men, that it made them easily forget 
their duty. The poor Floridians, on the contrary, fought 
only to defend their hearths." 

When the seven swimmers had recovered their senses, 
they were brought before de Soto, who inquired of them for 
what reason they did not surrender, like their companions, 
knowing well that death must soon put an end to their 
hopeless efforts. " Vitachuco had placed his confidence in 
us," they answered, modestly, " and it was our duty to show 
that we were not unworthy of his favour." Among these 
prisoners were three who were not more than eighteen or 
nineteen years of age. They were asked what had deter- 
mined them to remain so long in the water, as they, being 
so young, could not occupy any post in the army. "By 
our birth we were destined for the highest offices, and we 
are bound to set an example." In listening to these noble 
and simple replies, all the more touching as given by mere 
boys, the Spaniards could not restrain their tears, and their 



'268 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

general granted them life and liberty, and sent them to their 
families with many presents. 

De Soto was unable to conquer this country, and, attacked 
by a malignant fever, he died at the age of forty-two years, 
after having spent more than 100,000 ducats over his 
unlucky enterprise. "He was," says di Vega "a vigilant 
and adroit man, fond of glory, patient in misfortune, severe 
upon shortcomings in discipline and duty, but indulgent in 
every other respect, generous and charitable towards his men, 
and as brave and hardy as any of the previous captains, who 
made their way sword in hand in the New World." 

The inhabitants of South America were not surpassed by 
those of the northern part of the continent in skill in swim- 
ming. The Brazilians and Peruvians were such excellent 
-swimmers that, says Lescarbot, they would remain in the 
water eight days at a time if hunger did not drive them oil 
shore. They never were afraid of perishing from fatigue, 
though they had, as a rule, a wholesome dread of being 
devoured by sharks. The same may be said of the people 
of Oceania. The navigators who, in the eighteenth century, 
explored the archipelagos of the southern hemisphere, 
represent the natives of that part of the world as excellent 
swimmers. The frequent plunges in the sea in which they 
indulged familiarised them at an early age with it. In 
the time of Cook the South Sea Islanders were in the habit 
of bathing three times a day in running water. It was in 
the salt waves that both sexes loved most to disport them- 
selves, frolicking there after the fashion, or supposed fashion, 
of tritons and naiads. Who has not read the charming 
picture which Captain Cook has given us of his arrival in 
Tahitian waters, while engaged in his' second voyage round 
the world ? It was at the dawn of day on one of those 



SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA. 2C>9 

beautiful mornings which more commonly inspire poets 
than sailors. A waft of wind from shore carried to them a 
delicious perfume, and made the surface of the waters 
wrinkle. The mountains, covered with forests, reared their 
gigantic heads, upon which they already perceived the light 
of the rising sun. Near them they beheld a line of gently 
sloping hills, wooded like the mountains, agreeably varied 
with green and brown tints. Beneath was a plain adorned 
with bread-fruit trees, and behind these a line of noble 
palms. Everybody seemed to be still asleep. The morning 
was only dawning, and the bay lay in darkness. They 
could, however, distinguish the houses and the trees and 
canoes upon the shore. Half a mile from the shore the 
billows sounded against a reef of rock, but within it all was 
beautiful tranquillity. The daylight now began to spread 
over the sky, and soon the islanders were out, and adding 
animation to the charming scene. At the sight of the ves- 
sels many hastened to launch their boats and row over to the 
mariners, who were highly pleased to look at them. 

In this fairy scene and in these tranquil waters a number 
of young Tahitian girls were soon seen disporting themselves, 
their naked breasts and dishevelled hair making them look 
like syrens, whom, indeed, they rivalled in their beauty and 
their tastes. They soon came swimming enticingly round 
the ship, diving into the sea to pick up the glass beads or 
other trifles thrown to them from the deck. It was not 
with the intention of inducing them to show off their 
powers as swimmers that in the first instance the orna- 
ments were flung to them. One of the officers, in handing 
some trifling articles to a child about six years of age, 
happened to let them fall into the sea, when the youngster, 
at once leaping out of the canoe, dived for them, and 

N 



2IO WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

reappeared with them in a few seconds. Observing the 
feat with astonishment, and wishing to see further proofs 
of the expertness of the natives, the officers threw down 
several ornaments. A multitude of men and women amused 
the sailors by their astonishing performances in the water, 
not only catching glass beads flung to them, but also great 
nails, which, before they could be seized by the divers, must, 
from their weight, have sunk a considerable distance. Some 
remained so long in the water, that the English could scarcely 
help regarding them as amphibious. 

These South Sea Islanders were just as much at their 
ease when, instead of sporting in tranquil seas, smooth as 
mirrors, they found themselves in stormy waters, with the 
waves raging against the reefs or thundering upon the shore. 
The spectacle was then of quite a different kind, the surge 
rolling in at a prodigious height, breaking upon the beach. 
Cook had never yet seen such tremendous billows, and says 
that it would have been impossible for their boats to have 
lived in such a sea, while even the most able European 
swimmer would infallibly have perished, either choked by 
the billows or bruised to death on the shore. But the 
Tahitians seemed perfectly at home in the raging element, 
and when the waves rushed down upon them they dived 
through them and came up on the other side with incredible 
ease and agility. What rendered this spectacle even more 
striking was the fact that the swimmers, rinding in the 
middle of the sea the stern of an old canoe, seized it, and 
pushed it before them to a considerable distance. Then 
two or three Indians would place themselves together, and 
turning the square end of the canoe against the waves, they 
weic driven towards the coast with incredible rapidity, and 
were, indeed, sometimes cast upon the sands. Generally, 



SWIMMERS OF AMERICA AND OCEANIA.' 211 

however, the wave broke over them before they had got 
half way, and then diving, they reappeared on the other side, 
always keeping hold of the wreck of the canoe. They 
would then go back swimming, and return by the same 
manoeuvre, just as children, on holidays, climb Greenwich 
Hill for the fun of rolling down again. The English visitors 
remained for half an hour contemplating this astonishing 
scene, and during this period none of the swimmers went to 
land to rest — indeed all seemed to take the liveliest pleasure 
i& th~ amusement. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DIVERS. 

Diving in Former Times— Scyllias and his Daughter— -Antony and 
Cleopatra in Egypt — Fish Caught with the Line— Glaucus and 
the Nymph— From Scylla into Charybdis — The Divers of Sicily — 
Schiller's " Diver" — The Diving-bell known in the Time of Aris- 
totle — The Roman Divers — Divers in Ancient Warfare. 

Swimming alone does not suffice, and if one wishes to cany 
it to the point of perfection, it is necessary to combine with 
it a more difficult and dangerous art — that of diving. 

The ancients, who kept up constant communication with 
each other by the rivers — those great moving roads — and by 
the sea — which connects rather than separates the nations on 
its shores — had practised this exercise from the most remote 
times. Diving was at first made use of for catching the fish 
necessary for the food of man, and is so used at the present 
day by savage nations. Afterwards, as navigation developed, 
professional divers were engaged in fishing up vessels that 
had been wrecked, and the treasures that had been lost 
with them. When the spread of commerce had called new 
wants into existence, and had created a taste for ornament 
and luxury, divers found it a profitable pursuit to bring to 
the surface whatever beautiful things the sea held in its 
*' treasured caves and cells.'' Lastly, when greed, jealousy, 
and hate, engendered by these luxuries, resulted in bloody 
wars between nations, the art of diving took : ts place il 
military science, to which it rendered essential service. 



DIVERS, 213 

Tb* most famous diver of antiquity — perhaps of all time 
—was that Scyllias of whom Herodotus speaks. After a 
tempest: had dispersed the Persian fleet, Xerxes hired this 
accomplished diver, who, when he had recovered much of 
the lost treasure, was rewarded with a fair share. This 
Greek, however, desired to return to his own countrymen, 
and after waiting a long time, the occasion offered itself. 
A tempest was raging, during which the diver, making use 
of his wonderful skill, cut the cables of a portion of the 
Persiaii fleet — thus causing the loss of many of the vessels 
. — and then sought safety in flight by swimming. But from 
the point at which he took to the sea to the spot where h£ 
emerged — i.e., from Aphetes to Artemisium — the distance 
was three leagues, the crossing of which he accomplished 
altogether under water. Notwithstanding his well-known 
penchant for the marvellous, Herodotus does not hesitate to 
place this extraordinary feat in the category of fictions, but 
he takes care at the same time to say that he does not tell 
all he could of this great diver, fearing to admit into his 
narrative as much falsehood as truth. Pausanias informs us 
that Scyllias had a daughter, Cyana, not less skilful than her 
father, whom she assisted in his operations, proving of great 
use in cutting away the anchored vessels of the Persians. 
A double statue was erected in their honour at Delphi, in 
order to perpetuate the memory of the services which both 
had rendered to their country. 

It is impossible now to determine the exact time the 
divers of antiquity could remain under water without coming 
to the surface, but it would appear from various passages in 
the Greek and Latin authors that persons who gave them- 
selves up to the business could do so for a considerable 
time. The inhabitants of Rhodes and Ddos, and tfee 



214 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

people of Egypt, were the best divers, and were able, it was 
said, to remain under water for incredible periods. Antony 
and Cleopatra tested the qualifications of those of their time 
under somewhat amusing circumstances. We leave the 
narration to the biographer, Plutarch, who says :— " Antony 
went on one occasion to fish with the line, and as he could 
catch nothing he was much annoyed, all the more so because 
Cleopatra was present. He therefore secretly gave orders 
to a number of fishers, that when he again threw in his line 
they should suddenly plunge into the sea, attach to his hook 
a fish of the kind which he might otherwise have caught, 
and repeat the operation twice or thrice. Cleopatra at once 
saw through the trick, but, disguising the fact, pretended to 
be astonished every time the line came up bringing fish with 
it. Openly she praised Antony's skill, but privately she told 
her attendants how the wonder was done, and said that on 
the morrow they should see some sport on the water. They 
accordingly came to the angling next day in great numbers, 
assembling together in the fishermen's boats. Antony 
having dropped his line, Cleopatra ordered one of her 
servants to dive before his men, and fix upon the hook 
some old salted fish. This done, Antony, believing that 
he had caught something, rapidly pulled in the line, and 
then, as may well be supposed, a loud burst of laughter 
greeted the appearance of the cured fish. Cleopatra, 
smiling, said to the astonished Antony — ' Leave to us of 
Egypt, sire, the catching offish. It is not your line— your 
prey is towns and cities, countries and kingdoms.' " 

It is very possible that the tritons and sea-gods of the 
ancient mythology sung by the poets were originally only 
simple mortals distinguished chiefly for their expertness 
in diving. From seeing them sporting boldly on the 



DIVERS. 215 

surface of the water, sinking and reappearing after a long 
time at great distances, the vulgar might come to consider 
them supernatural beings, at home equally on the sea and 
the dry land. On this hypothesis the story of Glaucus 
is explained naturally. Glaucus was enamoured of the 
nymph Scylla, and was himself beloved by Circe the 
enchantress. But the latter, jealous of her rival, changed 
her into a gigantic rock of a semi-human shape; and as 
for Glaucus, she made him drink a poisoned draught. In 
his wanderings over the sea, he had observed certain herbs 
which the fishes ate in order to restore sinking vitality. 
He attempted the experiment himself, but he was dragged 
down to the bottom of the sea by the nereids, and changed 
into a sea-god. Now, Glaucus during his human existence 
had been a most expert diver, and used to pass between 
the enchantress and the nymph — or, to speak without figure 
— between the coasts of Italy, where Circe dwelt, to that 
of Sicily, by plunging into the sea, to the spot where raged 
the whirlpool of Scylla. Near this dangerous passage, 
on the opposite coast, was another gulf named Charybdis. 
These classic spots, which are not at all formidable in the 
present day, were in antiquity the terror of navigators, 
whence the proverb, " To fall from Charybdis into Scylla." 
To plunge into these furious waters seemed in the eyes 
of the ancients a feat of the most daring kind, and Glaucus, 
who often performed it, no doubt at last owed his death 
to it. 

Such was also the fate of another celebrated diver, who 
perished in this region at a later period, a Sicilian who lived 
at the end of the fifteenth century, and was named Nicolas. 
He was styled the jish, on account of his ability to exist 
under water for an extraordinary length of time — four or 



2l6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

five days at a time, they said, with a noble contempt for 
probability — feeding all the while on herbs and raw fish. 
His trade was to fish up coral and oysters from the depths 
of the sea ; and he was useful also in carrying despatches 
under water in a leathern bag. The King of Sicily having 
heard of his powers, wished to see him, and commanded 
him to dive not far from the promontory of Cape Faro 
into the gulf of Charybdis in order to ascertain the depth. 
As Nicolas hesitated, the king threw into the whirlpool a 
cup of gold, which the diver was so fortunate as to recover, 
and which he kept as his reward. He told the king of 
the marvellous rocks, the plants, and sea-animals which he 
had seen at the bottom of the waters, and added that he 
would not attempt the feat a second time. The king 
threw another golden cup into the sea; and the diver, 
once more tempted, again sprang, but was never more seen. 
Charybdis justified its ancient reputation, and did not give 
back its prey. 

The histoiy of Nicolas — who appears to have had organs 
of respiration of a peculiar kind — Schiller has made the basis 
of his beautiful ballad " The Diver," but for the purpose of 
heightening the effect has introduced a love episode. 

In our own times, an ingenious machine — the diving 
bell — fulfils its purpose very well, and the art of Scyllias 
is no longer what it was in antiquity. The use of machinery 
tends more and more to replace individual action. But 
the ancients were not without some idea of the diving-bell ; 
for we read in the " Book of Problems," that one means 
of giving divers the power of breathing under water, is to 
lower into it -a great cauldron or bell of brass, which pre- 
serves the air with which he is supplied, and which water 
does not enter. But it is necessary to take care to sink 



DIVERS. 217 

the cauldron perpendicularly, and by force ; for if it be but 
a little inclined, all the air escapes. Aristotle speaks of 
another instrument by which divers received from above 
such a supply of air as enabled them to remain a long time 
in the water. He compares this instrument to the trunk 
of an elephant, which the animal, when crossing a river, 
holds above his head for the purpose of breathing more 
freely. This machine consisted, no doubt, of a pipe of 
leather, which was fitted to a cap of the same material, and 
which, rising above the surface of the water, supplied the 
diver with the necessary air. 

For purposes of war divers are not now of very great 
use, for a good electric battery acts with a hundred times 
more effect than was ever produced by whole detachments 
in ancient times. What a wondrous discovery that was which 
was hailed with such joy a few years since ! — a torpedo on 
a new model able to scatter into a thousand pieces the 
most solid, most heavily plated ships! Every torpedo, 
however, can do that ; the great merit of this one was that 
all who remain more or less whole, safe, and sound, after 
the explosion, and save themselves by swimming away on 
the debris of the shattered vessel, would have their vertebral 
columns seriously damaged or entirely broken by the shock ! 
There, indeed, is a machine which dwarfs the prowess even 
of the most famous divers of antiquity. Compared with an 
instrument like this, what were the divers of Alexander, 
who at the siege of Tyre destroyed, underwater, the stupen- 
dous embankment of the Macedonians, pulling away the 
trunks and branches of trees with which the work was 
consolidated? or those others, who, during the long siege 
of Byzantium by Septimius Severus, cut the cables of the 
enemy's ships, and then, by means of ropes, dragged them 



2l8 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

away, " so that/' says Dion Cassius, " it was singular to see 
these vessels moving without sails or yards, and as it were 
by enchantment, into the port of Byzantium ? " 

We who can make steam and electricity the slaves of 
our will, are able to laugh at the pitiful condition of the 
ancient towns, obliged, when pressed by the enemy, to 
have recourse to diving, whether to carry news, ask for 
assistance, or obtain provisions. 

We see how, during a war between the Lacedaemonians 
and the Athenians, the inhabitants of a port, when almost 
starving, were succoured by divers who passed under water 
from a neighbouring island, carrying with them hides filled 
with grain and honey, which constitute to the present day 
the chief nourishment of the people of the country. And, 
at the siege of Modena, divers penetrated into the town, 
and departed with armlets of lead, upon which were en- 
graved the despatches to be transmitted. But ruse is met 
by ruse, and the enemy on their side used to invent a 
thousand stratagems for stopping the approach of the divers, 
and rendering their assistance valueless ; as at the siege 
of Numantia, they stretched cords across the water, and 
attached to them bells, or they placed on the surface 
beams armed with sharp and pointed knives which, con- 
tinually turning with the current, cut down without pity 
every one who risked himself within their range. 

In such cases the diver's art cost him his life, but in 
others it was the means of preserving it. Thus, among 
those who were forced to attempt the famous "Leap of 
Leucadia," such as were fortunate enough to escape un- 
injured had to thank their knowledge of swimming and 
diving for the result. The island of Leucadia, on the 
shores of Acarnania (now called St Maur, one of the 



DIVERS, 219 

Ionian group), attracted a number of desperate lovers, who 
sought to get rid of their passion by throwing themselves 
into the sea. Some perished, like the unhappy Sappho ; 
others escaped, like the citizen of Buthrotum in Epirus, who 
threw himself down from the rock four times without sus- 
taining any injury. Upon this escarped promontory stood 
a temple of Apollo, which the pilots saluted from afar with 
respect. Every year, on the day sacred to this god, a man 
condemned to death was brought hither, and, after an ex- 
piatory sacrifice, was launched from the rock into the sea 
below, covered with feathers, and surrounded with birds, 
who, by using their wings, might retard his descent. An- 
cient authors say that the fall was not always fatal. Did 
the criminal escape by swimming and plunging, or by the 
assistance of boats placed near to help him, it did not 
matter; it was enough for him that his life was saved, 
though he was for ever banished from the territory of 
Leucadia. 



CHAPTER XII. 

GREEK AND SYRIAN DIVERS. 

Sponge Fishing on the Coast of Syria. 

Despite what has already been said, there are certain diffi- 
cult and delicate industries which do not call for the aid of 
machinery to supplement human resources. The race of 
divers, therefore, is not yet extinct, and their skill still finds 
a pursuit in which it can be exercised. The reader will 
readily perceive that reference is made to pearl-fishing. 
Every one knows that these beautiful ornaments are fished 
up from the bottom of the sea by divers, chiefly in the 
neighbourhood of Ceylon and in the Persian gulf. This 
industry has, however, been so often described, that it 
would be superfluous to dwell upon it. 

There exists another kind of fishing very little known — 
that for sponges — of which we shall speak more in detail. 
After the Paris Exhibition of 1867, at which was shown the 
richest collection of sponges ever seen, no one ought to 
remain in ignorance of the subject. 

Do fair readers who watch over their complexions with 
absorbing care, and who always have upon their toilet 
tables one of those fine soft velvety articles, ever ask them- 
selves how they are obtained, and whether they belong to 
the animal or the vegetable kingdom? Without doubt 
ladies do not trouble their heads with any such problems, 
any more than when wearing at balls necklaces of pearls 



GREEK AND SYRIAN DIVERS, 221 

they think of the Indian divers who risked their lives to 
procure them. 

Ought we to class the sponge among the animals of the 
lowest organisation, the polypi, or among vegetables ? The 
question is one in regard to which science has still left us 
somewhat in doubt, though it is generally assigned to that 
portion of the animal kingdom that most nearly approaches 
to vegetables. It remains, however, a mysterious entity, 
which we derive from the quarter of the world that is above 
all mysterious — the East. The best and finest kinds are 
found on the coasts of Syria ; but they are also dived for 
in the islands of the Greek Archipelago, off the Barbary 
States, and among the Bahama Islands. 

Formerly they were obtained from Egypt, but nowadays 
this source is closed ; and that in the Barbary States will 
also be soon exhausted. It is even said that all the sponge 
banks now known must in a short time be worked out, and 
that the demand will cease to be met by an adequate 
supply. As the desire for the comforts of life daily spreads 
through the different strata of society, this article is more 
and more sought after, but owing to the negligence of the 
Turkish government, and the unscrupulous greed of the 
merchants who traffic in them, sponges are rapidly be- 
coming scarcer. Yet they multiply at a great rate — at least 
we suppose so, for on this point also we are reduced to 
conjecture — -and the rocks, cleared by the divers, are, in the 
space of two years, again covered with a new crop. 

The most beautiful sponges being found in the Syrian 
seas, it is there that diving is most actively carried on, that 
the process is most interesting, and that the most famous 
divers are engaged. The art is confined to the people of 
the country, for it demands special qualities — bodily vigour. 



222 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

nimbleness, skill, and courage. Strangers content them- 
selves with trafficking in the commodity when it has been 
brought to land, leaving the diving a monopoly in the 
hands of the natives of Syria and Greece, who are accus- 
tomed from an early age to this laborious work. The 
merchants arrive about the month of September from the 
ports of the Levant, of the Mediterranean coast, in many 
cases from Marseilles, and even in some from Paris. 
Among the dealers from the gay capital is one who spends 
several months every year at Rhodes during the time of 
the sponge-fishing, and who has himself gone down to the 
bottom of the sea to ascertain with his own eyes whether 
he would not make use of the diving-bell, with the view of 
securing a larger harvest more conveniently and rapidly 
than by the present method of obtaining the article in 
which he traffics. 

Beyrout, Tripoli, Latakieh, and Batroun in Syria, are 
the most important seats of the fisheries, and the principal 
markets for the sale of the article. Fishing commences in 
June, and terminates in August, though sometimes it is 
prolonged into September and October, but the best month 
is July. When it is about to begin divers assemble from 
the coasts of Syria and Greece, and the special boats used 
in the industry are got ready. The divers divide themselves 
into crews of five or six men, a crew to every boat, each 
commanded by a reis. At the Paris Exhibition one of the 
boats, named Scaphi, used by the Arab divers, was on view. 
They push on in the morning to the distance of four and 
a half or five miles from the shore, for here the sponges are 
to be found on the banks of rock, formed by the debris of 
mollusks. The fishers now look out for a favourable spot, 
which, on account of the state of the sea, it is not always 



GREEK AND SYRIAN DIVERS. 223 

easy to find, for if the surface is too agitated to enable 
them to see to a certain depth, the work must be given up 
for that day. When, on the other hand, the weather is 
suitable, and the bank explored rich in sponges, the sails 
are furled, the anchor thrown, and the divers descend in 
turn. They tear the sponges from the submarine rocks, 
and deposit them in nets which cover their breasts. They 
collect as many as possible at a time, and when they feel 
obliged to mount to the surface to breathe, they shake the 
rope by which they have descended into the sea. This 
rope is weighted by a large stone, which is a sort of anchor 
of safety to these poor wretches. The depths at which 
sponges are met with are various. The species found in 
shallow waters are generally of inferior quality, and to get 
the finest it is necessary to dive to an enormous depth. 

In the last case the operation is very difficult, and of 
course it is on this account that the fine sponges are so 
dear, though they are, strange to say, much more numerous 
than the coarse ones. It is said that a boat will return in the 
evening with only eight or ten sponges, but this must 
certainly mean pieces of the very finest quality. The com- 
mon qualities are sometimes torn off the rocks very easily, 
by means of three-forked harpoons, attached to long rods. 
These sponges grow under very thick bunches of weeds, 
and to obtain them it is necessary to wait till the squalls of 
the winter season have dragged away these parasites. Only 
then, and when the sea is calm, is it possible to see to the 
bottom of the waters to make choice of a suitable spot by 
which to seize the sponge by the point at which it adheres 
to the rock, without running the risk of tearing it. On the 
other hand, with respect to fine sponges, the harpoon cannot 
be used without the risk of destroying the article, and it 



224 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

is in this case that the skill of the diver becomes indis* 
pensable. 

Latakieh, so celebrated for its fine tobacco, deserves to 
be no less known and appreciated for the excellent quality 
of its sponges. The divers of that region are a peculiar race, 
living for the most part on the little island of Ruad, not far 
from the Gulf of Antioch. Although their life is a hard 
one, full of struggles and privations, they are robust and 
courageous. It is difficult to conceive how they can remain 
such a length of time under water. When they fall upon a 
rich sponge-bed they stick to their prey, and do not leave it 
until absolutely compelled. Then they rise to the surface 
in the last state of fatigue, out of breath, and with the blood 
flowing from the mouth, the nose, the ears, and even the 
eyes. Some abuse their powers so much that they die of 
their exertions and loss of blood. The divers of Latakieh 
are quite amphibious; the children, when they reach a 
certain age, assist their parents; the other younger ones 
remain at home with their mothers, and these form the only 
inhabitants of the Isle of Ruad during several months of the 
summer. The most favourable period for diving is the 
months of July and August, when the climate of the north of 
Syria is delicious. The waves then roll softly over the breast 
of the ocean, no sudden gusts or deceitful squalls interrupting 
their slow and regular march. It is charming to watch at 
dawn the fleet of little boats, with their white sails standing out 
clear against the blue horizon, skimming the waves with won- 
derful rapidity,and hardly touching their crests; and then, when 
they have reached the proper fishing ground, to see the men 
throwing ropes from boat to boat, and fastening them together 
in a movable cordon, within which the divers ply their trade. 

The commencement of the fishing season is celebrated 



GREEK AND SYRIAN DIVERS. 225 

in the Island of Ruad with joyous fetes. The people, 
though under the government of the Turks, live happily, and 
administer their own affairs, placing the authority of the 
community in the hands of their old men and sages. Other 
rejoicings take place at the close of the season, and are all 
the more animated if it has been a successful one. In the 
winter the divers rest from all labour, sit with their legs 
crossed smoking their pipes, while their boats and appliances 
for sponge-fishing are laid up in a place of safety. 

Our account of sponge-fishing would not be complete if 
we omitted to make mention of the history of the sponge 
after it is brought from the sea by the diver. Before being 
sent to market it undergoes various processes of prepara- 
tion. As soon as the boat comes to shore a trough is 
dug in the sand and filled with water, and the sponges 
having been thrown into it the men trample them with 
their feet in order to free them from their sticky gelatinous 
coating. But there still remains a great deal of sand, which 
the divers do not care to remove entirely, because, as they 
sell their sponges by the weight, the heavier their goods are 
the better for them. The purchasers, however, are not less 
cunning than the sellers, and do not definitely conclude 
their bargain until two or three days have passed, during 
which time the sponges are left to dry. It is only inex- 
perienced buyers that are caught in the trap. After this the 
sponge is marketable, and if it is a piece that has been 
dived for and not caught with the harpoon, if it has come 
from Syria, if it is of the fine soft quality, if its colour is a 
pale yellow, its shape that of a cup, round on all sides, its 
consistency velvety, it is certain to find its way to the 
boudoirs of the rich, the elegant, and the delicate, who will 
not grudge to pay for it as much as four or even six guineas. 

o 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SKATING AND SKATERS, 

The Inventor of the Skate — Amusements of the Londoners — German 
Skaters — The Poet Klopstock's Love of the Exercise — Goethe 
Cures his Heart-ache by Skating — What He Thinks of the Art — 
The Skate in Holland in Former and in the Present Times — Races 
of Female Skaters in Friesland — Regiment of Scandinavian 
Skaters — English Riflemen — Episode of the Winter of 1806 — 
Figure Made on the Ice with Skates. 

Happy are the climates in which the diver can at all seasons 
of the year descend to the bottom of the waters. But under 
less favoured skies the severity of the season is accompanied 
by a difference in the habits, pleasures, and exercises of the 
inhabitants. Winter comes with its frosts, the rivers are 
fixed in their channels, and the skater takes possession of 
the watery domain elsewhere explored by the diver. It is 
impossible to name the inventor of the skate, but it is one 
of those inventions for which no one has a right to claim 
priority. Want, imperious want, called it into existence, 
and the only question that remains is who improved it ? In 
this age of ours the skate is a beautifully-finished article, but 
originally it consisted simply of the jawbone of an animal — 
a horse or a cow — so fashioned as to glide easily over the 
ice. A pair of these primitive skates are still to be seen in 
the British Museum, and others are occasionally dug up at 
Moorfields and Finsbury, in which districts, now resounding 
with the roll of waggons, drays, and carriages, the youth of 



SKATING AND SKATERS. 227 

London used to enjoy themselves during the frosts of winter. 
" When," says Fitzstephen, " the great fenne or moor (which 
watereth the walls of the citie on the north side) is frozen, 
many young men play upon the yce. Some, striding as 
wide as they may, doe slide swiftly; some tye bones to their 
feet and under their bootes, and, shoving themselves by a 
little picked staffe, doe slide as swiftly as a birde flyeth in 
the air, or an arrow out of a crosse-bow." The staff re- 
ferred to served a double end; it was mainly used for 
support, but it was often employed as a weapon of offence 
and defence. 

The modern skater is in a different position ; he does 
not walk on the ice with the means of support constantly at 
hand. He launches himself upon it, and flies over it, 
executing marvels of skill and agility. Amateur skaters 
abound in Germany, who, while moving over the ice at 
a great pace, can suddenly leap from it a distance of two 
yards, and clear two or three hats placed one above the 
other, or even the little sledges which some of the ladies 
use. Baron de Brincken, formerly page to the King of 
Westphalia, accomplished the feats of which we have spoken. 
The northern countries of Europe, as can well be under- 
stood, furnish the greatest adepts, and in Germany, in par- 
ticular, there are many graceful skaters. 

The author of the " Messiah," Klopstock, was an enthu- 
siastic lover of skating, even in his old age. At Altona he 
has been seen skimming over the ice for many hours at the 
time, attempting to call back that warmth of blood which 
age and inactivity had chilled. And not only was he an 
ardent admirer of this sport, but he tried to proselytise in its 
interest, and wrote fiery lyrics in its praise. Germany 
laughed a little at such enthusiasm, and asked, " What ! the 

O 2 



228 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

author of ' Messiah* linger over pleasures that are no longer 
suitable to his age?" But when Klopstock and Goethe 
met for the first time, the one's sun about to set, the glory of 
the other just bursting over the world, what was the subject 
of their conversation ? Literature, poetry, aesthetics ? Not 
at all The conversation turned upon the art with which 
they were familiar, and thanks to which we fly over the hard 
crystallised water on winged feet, like those of the Homeric 
gods. 

It is said that Goethe, who never skated in his boyhood, 
fell in love with the exercise under peculiar circumstances. 
The poet had ceased to visit Frederica, of Sesenheim — that 
incident which has puzzled so many readers of the " Auto- 
biography." The love-link was broken, and the poet is 
believed to have deeply regretted the step he had taken. 
Discontented with himself, tormenting himself with re- 
proaches, which even his greatest admirers must think were 
more than deserved, Goethe knew not how to banish the 
phantoms that beset him. In severe bodily exercise he 
sought relief from the annoyances of embittered memory. 
A new wandering Jew, he passed from Frankfort to Darm- 
stadt, from Darmstadt to Frankfort, in the midst of wind 
and tempest, singing his " Wanderers' Sturmlied," while the 
storm was beating in his face. But though he wearied 
himself out with these marches and counter-marches, 
nothing could calm the trouble of his spirit. If he sought a 
change in riding, black care mounted behind, and rode with 
him. At last, his friends attracted him to the ice, and 
taught him to skate. The poet was a persevering and 
enthusiastic student of the art whose praises Klopstock sang. 
This new employment gave a change to the current of his 
ideas, and had a beneficial effect upon his moral nature. 



SKATING AND SKATERS. 229 

He felt that it was to Klopstock that he owed, however 
indirectly, the salutary transformation that he had under- 
gone, and one morning in December, when the frost was 
hard and clear, he jumped out of bed, and putting on his 
skates, recited, as if he were inspired, one of the verses of 
the poet. 

Goethe's enjoyment during his first skating winters 
was fondly recalled to the last, and in writing his won- 
derful " Autobiography," he speaks of his favourite exercise 
with an enthusiasm which age could not repress. " It is 
with good reason," he exclaims, "that Klopstock has 
praised this employment of our physical powers, which 
brings us in contact with the happy activity of childhood, 
which urges youth to exert ail its suppleness and agility, 
and which tends to drive away the inertia of age. We give 
ourselves up to this pleasure with happy abandonment 
A whole day passed upon the ice does not satisfy us, and 
we prolong the amusement far into the night. While other 
exercises, indulged in for an unusual length of time, weary 
the body, this one only seems to increase its suppleness 
and vigour. 

" The moon coming forth from the bosom of the clouds, 
and shining with mild radiance over the snow covered fields, 
the night wind that sighs as we cut quickly through it, the 
cracking of the ice beneath our feet, our flying movements 
— all suggest the savage majesty of the scenes of Ossian. 
We declaim after each other one of Klopstock's odes, and 
when we meet together at night, we make the air resound 
with our praises of the poet whose genius has lent a grace 
to the pleasures of the ice. Like the young men who in 
spite of the development of their intellectual faculties, 
forget everything for the simple games of youth, as soon 



230 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

as they have once recovered the taste for them, we seem, 
when skating, to lose entirely any consciousness of the 
most serious objects that claim our attention. It was 
while abandoning myself to these aimless movements that 
the most noble aspirations, which had too long lain dormant 
within me, were re-awakened, and I owe to these hours, 
which seemed lost, the most rapid and successful develop- 
ment of my poetical projects." 

In Holland the taste for skating is even more fully 
developed than in Germany. In winter, the Dutch mer- 
chants adopt this method of conveying their commodities 
to market, and as they skim along their frozen canals, some 
amuse themselves by knitting, others smoke, and all carry 
on their head the hampers that contain their wares. 

In one of the most interesting provinces of the country 
(Friesland) skating races take place in almost all the 
towns. Indeed, this province could not be inhabited if the 
art were unknown, for the people would then be confined 
within doors during several months of every year. Thus, 
to the Frieslanders skating is less an amusement than 
a necessity, and both sexes actually skate more than they 
walk. No sooner can an infant keep himself on his legs 
than the irons are fastened to his boots, and his parents 
lead him on the ice, and teach him to use them. At six 
years of age the young skater has attained great proficiency, 
and moves with rapidity and elegance ; but it is only 
between the ages of twenty and thirty that he becomes a 
consummate artist; and from this period he continues to 
practise the exercise until he reaches extreme old age. The 
peasants have a heavy and awkward appearance when they 
are trudging along the road or labouring in the fields in 
summer time ; but in winter, when their skates are on their 



SKATING AND SKATERS. 23 1 

feet, and their canals have become glittering roads of ice, 
the grace and velocity of their movements as they glide 
along are most surprising. 

Winter, which everywhere benumbs the limbs and 
renders men inactive in disposition, has the exactly opposite 
effect in Holland, enlivening the people, bringing them into 
the open air, and putting them in good humour. Indeed, 
the transformation is so striking that it astonishes all 
strangers. Pilati, the author of " Letters on Holland (the 
Hague, 1780)," makes mention of this singular phenomenon 
as early as the eighteenth century. He wonders at the 
metamorphosis produced by the frost upon the physique of 
the inhabitants. "Heavy, massive, stiff creatures during 
the rest of the year become suddenly active, ready, and 
agile, as soon as the canals are frozen." Travellers 
speculate upon the reason of the change, and ask whether 
it is that in winter the sun drawing forth from the 
earth none of the fogs and vapours which its beams 
cause to ascend in summer, the air is purer and more 
elastic. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that the 
people who creep about heavily in the fine weather, betake 
themselves suddenly, as soon as the snow covers the ground 
and the waters are bounded by the frost, to running, leaping, 
and dancing upon the ice. The citizens then travel from 
town to town, and even from province to province, with 
a celerity which contrasts strangely with their immobility 
during the warm weather. In the eighteenth century, the 
most expert skaters could go from Leyden to Amsterdam — 
a distance of fifteen miles — in an hour and a quarter, a feat 
which put the coach or carriage fairly to shame. In a 
work which dates from this time, " The Delights of 
Holland" (Amst., 1697),. the case is mentioned of a father 



2 3 2 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

who travelled more than 1 20 leagues in one day in order to 
reach his son, who was in danger of death. Another person 
laid a wager that he would go three leagues on the ice 
more rapidly than the other would get over a league and 
a half on horseback, but the bet was declined. "The 
Hollanders," says the same author, "are like the birds 
of the air; they spend more time in flying than in walking." 
They could move so steadily on their skates that they 
carried baskets of eggs on their arms while going at their 
highest speed without breaking one. 

And the children ! These lumpish, chubby-faced little 
Dutchmen — who when playing on the ground in summer 
time will not put themselves out of the way to let a carriage 
pass, preferring to run the chance of being crushed beneath 
the wheels to being at the trouble of moving — what marvel- 
lous activity do they now show on the frozen canals ! 
Pilati, to whom we have already referred, remarks, " The 
races on the ice are the carnivals of the Dutch ; they are 
their fetes, their operas, their dissipations. At this season, 
during which many fashionable people in different parts 
of the world are ruining themselves by their extravagance, 
the only expense to which the Hollanders are put is the 
cost of a pair of skates, and the outlay is called for only 
once or twice during their lives." 

At the present day the inhabitants of Friesland exhibit 
the same peculiarity. Any one who has been among them 
in the warm season, should visit them during winter, and 
see their skate-races, which take place upon the large 
canals by which the country is cut up in every direction. 
Long strips of wood ranged in line are placed upon the 
ice to keep the competitors separate, for otherwise in 
the heat of the contest each might be tempted to spoil 




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SKATING AND SKATERS. 235 

the chances of the others by running across their path. 
The course being sometimes more favourable to swift 
progress on the one side of this demarcation than on the 
other, the skaters are bound every time they turn to change 
the side. The lists are closed at the two extremities by 
ropes which run round by the sides of the canal, and along 
which there is always a multitude of excited spectators. 
The prizes consist of articles of considerable value, but 
to obtain them it is necessary to have been victorious in 
from sixty to eighty heats. 

The races in which females alone are competitors are 
more interesting than those which are confined to men. 
The youth of the locality contend for the honour of attach- 
ing the skates to the feet of their female friends, and the 
fortunate swain who is allowed to perform this office is 
rewarded with a kiss. If these Atalantas of the north have 
not the strength of the men they have more grace ; they do 
not equal their masculine rivals in speed, but they excel 
them in lightness and in beauty of style. 

In northern countries skates have long been employed 
in the execution of military evolutions. The ground being 
for a considerable portion of the year thickly covered with 
snow, it has been found necessary that the troops, or at least 
certain corps, should be provided with skates to enable them 
to practise the exercises and manoeuvres which could not, 
during the cold season, be performed without them. The 
soldiers of Holland go through all the evolutions of the 
military art upon the ice, but it is in Norway that it has 
been considered necessary to embody a special corps, 
known as the "regiment of skaters." The men are 
furnished with the skates in ordinary use in the north, that 
fixed on the right foot being somewhat longer than that or/ 



2^6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the left. Furnished with these the soldiers descend steep 
slopes with incredible rapidity, re-ascend them as quickly, 
cross rivers and lakes, and halt at the slightest signal, even 
while moving at the highest speed. To assist them in 
stopping thus instantaneously they have a long staff, shod 
with iron, similar to that used by travellers in Switzerland 
and the Pyrenees, to assist them in clambering up the 
glaciers and steep peaks. This staff, which sinks deep into 
the snow, is of great assistance to the regiment of skaters, 
and is used by them in all their manoeuvres, whether in 
setting out on the march, or quickening or slackening their 
pace. It is also used to steady the men, and give them 
support when they are taking aim and firing. The accoutre- 
ments of these men are simple. The weapons are a light 
musket, suspended by a shoulder-belt, and a sword bayonet. 
But they manage these, and perform all their evolutions on 
the ice with a dexterity which astonishes strangers. 

" It is not," says Blaine, in his " History of Field Sports," 
" in Holland, Germany, Russia, and America only that 
skating is used as a great agent both of personal communica- 
tion between distant localities, and of transmitting the 
necessaries of life from place to place. On the contrary, 
in the fenny districts of Lincoln, Huntingdon, Cam- 
bridgeshire, &c, when the vast floodings have become 
frozen, and left only a broad expanse of ice far as the eye 
can reach, it is equally available, and almost as usefully 
employed as in northern climes. At such times, when not 
only all means of conveying the products of life from one 
locality to another, but also those of personal transit are 
extremely difficult to command, then is it that the skate is 
called into requisition, and the wearers set off at railway 
speed from one town to another, either on business or for 



SKATING AND SKATERS. 237 

pleasure, and ere they return have probably accomplished 
fifty or sixty miles with little fatigue, and, when pressed for 
time, have done it in a very few hours. Some of them 
have been known to skate forty miles considerably within 
three hours. Nor is this all : on the contrary, being skate 
mounted, the traders are able, and often are seen, to push 
before them small sledges, or boat-shaped lockers, laden 
with wares of every description, from town to town." 

During the early winter of 1806, after the battle of 
Jena, Marechal Mortier received an order from the Emperor 
to make himself master, without delay, of the Hanseatic 
towns. The officer charged with the transmission of this 
order found himself at the mouth of the Elbe, which he 
required to pass, and which at this point is seven and a half 
miles wide. The question was to find a bridge, for without 
one a detour of twenty-two miles would have to be made up 
the one bank of the river and down the other before he 
could reach the point opposite to that at which he found 
himself. But the officer, knowing that time was precious, 
did not hesitate to adopt a resolution, which might, if 
unsuccessfully carried out, prove fatal to him. He pro- 
cured skates, and rapidly passed from bank to bank of the 
newly-frozen river. His ingenuity and boldness in taking 
this course enabled him to deliver his despatch six hours 
sooner than he possibly could have done by the ordinary 
route. 

In speaking of skating it would be unpardonable to 
omit reference to feats of skill, which consist in tracing 
figures with the iron of the skate, and which are always 
considered among the most marvellous of the skater's 
exhibitions of his art. A certain Swede is mentioned, who, 
borne upon his skates as on wings, designed with <>ne foot 



2$S WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

a number of portraits, which, though not distinguished for 
photographic accuracy, were remarkable for the purity and 
neatness of the lines. We are also assured of the authen- 
ticity of a still more extraordinary feat. A young lady 
accepted a challenge to a correspondence upon the ice, and 
in a few minutes a question and answer were written down 
with an elegance unsurpassed by handwriting upon glass 
with a diamond. The famous Chevalier de St. George, 
who was marvellously expert in all exercises of the body, 
was, it is said, one of those who signed his name upon the 
ice with the blade of his skate. Strutt mentions that he 
had seen on the ice in Hyde Park four skaters dance a 
minuet with as much elegance as if they had been walking 
on the floor of a ball-room; while others whirled and 
manoeuvred with wonderful cleverness, tracing upon the ice 
the letters of the alphabet one after the other. Many other 
statements as to wonderful achievements in this way might 
be quoted, but the majority are of a very apocryphal cha- 
racter. The ordinary figures are, however, accomplished 
by expert skaters with ease, and though the range is limited, 
most of them show the art in its most graceful develop- 
ments. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE STILTS. 

Stilts in favour at the Court of Burgundy — Stilt Battle at Namur— 
A Poem on Stilts — The "Landes" of Gascony — Crossing of the 
Niagara. 

The custom of walking with stilts dates from the earliest 
times, and in this, as in all the other branches of art, there 
have been many distinguished professors, of whose names 
history, certainly, has not taken notice, but who, never- 
theless, have achieved a remarkable degree of proficiency, 
if it be true that many of them danced upon the tight-rope 
like the regular acrobats. Manuscripts of the middle ages 
have engravings representing men engaged in this exercise, 
which was in high favour at the court of Burgundy. In the 
accounts of the steward of Lille for the year 15 16, on the 
occasion of the entry of the King of Spain, afterwards 
Charles V., into that town, there figures a sum of "VI sols 
(ancient French coins) given to a man who walked upon 
high stilts, and followed the court carrying a banner." 

At Namur, in former times, combats in which the con- 
tests were carried on by men wearing stilts used to take 
place. It is to be remembered that at this town, which 
was subject to the periodical overflow of the waters of the 
Sambre and the Meuse, the use of stilts was at one time a 
necessity, by means of which the inhabitants were able to 
pass from street to street, and from district to district. 
Without stilts such communication between the different 



240 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

quarters was impossible at certain seasons of the year, and 
the practice, which was at one time a necessity, became 
afterwards an amusement A number of popular fetes were 
formerly celebrated at Namur, and were encouraged by the 
courts of the province for the purpose of developing the 
strength, skill, and agility of the people. Among the 
games reference may be made to one which was called 
the "Dance of the Seven Maccabees," peculiar to Namur, 
and which was executed to the sound of the tambour, each 
performer holding his neighbour's sword-point. To these 
games stilt-combats were in the course of time added. The 
struggle was maintained between the inhabitants of the old 
town and the new, called respectively the Melans and the 
Avresses. Five or six hundred young men divided into two 
opposing bands, formed into brigades, and wearing cos- 
tumes of different colours, advanced against each other, 
mounted upon stias about four feet high. The onset, 
which was made to the sound of military instruments — fifes, 
cymbals, and trumpets — took place in the great square 
opposite the town hall. The two parties were ranged in 
regular order of battle, the front line consisting of the most 
formidable and skilful stilt-walkers, to sustain the first shock 
of the melee> while a corps of reserve was at hand to succour 
any point threatened with defeat. The combatants carried 
no weapons — it was against the rule to do so then — but they 
had their elbows and their stilts, by the vigorous use of 
which they did their best to place their enemies hors de 
combat 

The croc-en-jambe, or blow behind the knee, of which we 
have already spoken, was permissible, was indeed the great 
coup in this kind of combat, and was delivered by every 
combatant as often as possible. And this was not seldom, 



THE STILTS. 243 

for the Namurois of the Middle Ages, like the Bretons of 
the present time, were famous in the art of wrestling. 
Among the ancients this expedient was also common, and 
in their matches it was most important to master the leg 
of an opponent. Thus Plautus in one of his pieces, "The 
Pseudolus," in speaking of wine, says, " It is a dangerous 
wrestler, for it at once attacks the legs." The Romans also 
were accomplished in this exercise. Once, when following 
their enemies upon the frozen Danube, they threw their 
bucklers on the ice, and planting one foot on the shield, 
which afforded a sufficiently unyielding surface, they applied 
the other foot with such vigour to the legs of their adversaries, 
that they were obliged to fly, leaving many of their number 
dead behind them. 

The stilt struggle often lasted for two hours, the com- 
batants swaying from side to side, advancing, retreating, 
crouching towards the earth, or leaping up with a bound to 
avoid a well-aimed blow. But the special feature of the 
fight was the presence of women in the midst of the fray. 
Did they come there, like the Sabine women, to separate 
the combatants, or to take part in the fight ? Neither the 
one nor the other. The mothers, sisters, and wives of 
those engaged followed their champions to the field of 
battle, and, like the women among the ancient Germans, 
though not taking an active part in the contest, they 
animated their party by their gestures, cries, and presence. 
When the combatants by whose side they walked were 
thrown down, they assisted them to mount their stilts, or 
caught them as they fell, lest they should strike their heads 
against the pavement. On these occasions the battle was 
hot and furious, but did not by any means necessarily result 
in the death of those who engaged in it As long as it 

p 2 



244 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

lasted the flags of the rival factions floated from the 
windows of the town hall, and did not a little to inflame 
the minds of the factions. 

At Venice in the Middle Ages, at the celebration of the 
Guerra dei Pugni y which we have already mentioned, the 
women acted a part similar to that played by the ladies 
of Namur. They appeared in the field, and excited the 
combatants by their presence, cries, and gestures. In a 
curious brochure of the seventeenth century, written in 
Latin, examples are given of the inspiriting shouts of 
these Venetian women. "We are here, dear husbands," 
they cried. "Would to Heaven it was permitted us 
to be present at this battle otherwise than as spectators ! 
But modesty and our sex forbid us, though fear does 
not restrain us. Ah ! if we could only fire you with our 
ardour, and if you could in exchange lend us a little of 
your strength ! What wait you for ? Forward, dear ones, 
and bear off the victory !" 

Stilt-fights formed one of the liveliest amusements of 
Namur. They took place during the fetes of the Carnival, 
and on other great occasions, such as the passing through 
the city of sovereigns or princes whom the inhabitants 
desired specially to honour. Thus the Marechal Saxe 
was in 1748 entertained with one of these tourneys. No 
doubt the combatants showed the greatest ardour on this 
occasion, for Maurice said, " If two armies engaged showed 
as much ferocity as the youths of Namur, it would not be 
only a battle but a butchery." 

From one of these stilt-fights the Namurois won a 
privilege, the importance of which they have never ceased 
to appreciate. The Archduke Albert of Austria, at his 
entrance into the Low Countries, was greeted by the 



THE STILTS. 245 

Governor of Namur, who promised to bring before him 
" two troops of warriors, who, without being either on foot 
or on horseback, would afford him the spectacle of a new 
mode of fighting ;" and the Archduke was so much charmed 
with the exhibition, that he accorded to the inhabitants of 
the town the privilege of being exempt perpetually from the 
duties on beer ! 

Bonnet states that he saw in Holland, in the seventeenth 
century, " a Chinese who was mounted upon stilts as high 
as the roofs of the houses, and who went about in this 
fashion announcing to the town the games in which his 
troupe were about to take part." 

In France the Landes of Gascony are the classic ground 
of the stilts, without which the inhabitants could not tra- 
verse their vast plains. The nature of the soil does not 
permit of the passage of water, which consequently sinks 
and forms standing pools and marshes several feet deep, 
and utterly impracticable to the pedestrian. It is also 
necessary that the Landes shepherds should be sufficiently 
highly perched in order to be able to survey their flocks, 
scattered among the heath and brushwood. These people 
mount early in the morning, and do not quit their elevated 
position till the evening. 

In order to get upon their stilts they climb up to a very 
high mantelpiece, or the roof of a stable, or the window of 
a house. The stilts are furnished with rests like stirrups 
for the feet, and the lower ends are shod with bone, to 
keep the wood from being worn down or broken by the 
stones. They are attached to the thigh, but in such a way 
as to permit the knees being freely bent. Every peasant 
is provided besides with a long pole, which he uses for 
climbing up to his position, and for support when he wishes 



246 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

to rest Thus mounted, the shepherds of the Landes move 
with wonderful agility, clearing hedges and wide ditches 
without difficulty. Sometimes, in the provinces of the 
South of France races on stilts are held, in which women 
take part. 

In 1808, when Napoleon was at Bayonne, the inhabi- 
tants gave a specimen of their accomplishments to the 
Empress Josephine and her attendants. With their " seven- 
leagued boots" they traversed the town in a few steps. 
The ladies of the Court, sitting at the windows, threw them 
money, which they picked up while running, without de- 
scending from their perches. From time to time they 
seated themselves on the earth, then suddenly sprang up to 
their full height without any other help than that of their 
long poles. But all these wonders dwarfed before the 
achievement of a Yankee of Stonington (Connecticut), 
who wagered he would traverse the rapids o' Niagara 
upon stilts, and who kept his word on the 12th of 
March, 1859. 



BOOK III, 



SKILL OF THE EYE AND HAND. 



CHAPTER L 

THE SLING AND ITS USE, 

Missile Weapons not highly esteemed by the Ancients — The Sling in 
the Holy Scriptures — The Inhabitants of the Balearic Isles : how 
they trained Children to this Exercise — Projectiles found in the 
Plain of Marathon — The Slinger and Trajan's Column. 

How is it that the ancients, who in the Olympic Games 
gave prizes for throwing the discus and the javelin, did not 
incorporate among their games of skill that of shooting 
with the bow ? Is it more honourable to plant a javelin 
in a target than to strike the same target with an arrow ? 
The chief reason for the exclusion was that the bow, con- 
sidered with respect to its nature and its uses, was not held 
in high esteem by the ancients. There was no protection 
against its shots, and with it one could, without risk to 
himself, wound an adversary from a distance. In such 
a case, then, what was the use of strength and courage, 
seeing that, when all were armed with bow and arrow, the 
most cowardly were put on a level with the bravest ? The 
use of such weapons ran quite counter to the ideas of the 
ancients, and to those methods of combat, face to face 



248 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

and hand to hand, which placed personal bravery in so 
prominent a position. While the Greek or Trojan warrior 
advanced across the plain before the eyes of gods and men, 
alone, strong only in his valour, and without other arms 
than the sword and spear, the archer crouched behind a 
wall or rampart of bucklers, and from this secure hiding- 
place spread death among the ranks of the enemy. At 
the siege of Troy, Teucer, the famous archer, cowered 
under the broad buckler of Ajax, and from this hiding, 
place shot down a multitude of brave warriors. " Every 
time that Ajax raised his buckler," says the Greek poet, 
" Teucer, taking aim, discharged his arrows into the melee, 
and those whom he struck fell, never to rise again. But 
immediately after shooting the archer took refuge again 
with Ajax, like an infant in its mother's breast ; and the 
son of Telamon covered him with his powerful segis." 
From this it is easy to understand how the ancient heroes 
had so low an opinion of the weapon of long range. 

We remark also in the same poet with what contempt 
the valiant Diomedes addresses Paris, who had shot an 
arrow at him, and who, to do this the more safely, had 
taken shelter behind a tombstone. "Wretched archer," 
cried the warrior, " you who boast of your curled hair, 
and who think of nothing but women, if you dare to attack 
me armed only with my fist, face to face, your bow and 
your numerous arrows would not save you. You plume 
yourself too much in having grazed my foot. I am no 
more disturbed by my wound than I should be by the 
stroke of a woman's hand or by that of a weak infant. 
The arrows of a warrior who has neither strength nor 
skill do no harm. But such is not the case with the 
weapons thrown by my hands. Evil is his fate who feels 



THE SLING AND ITS USE. 249 

the point of my javelin; his wife will beat her face; his 
children will be orphans ; and his body will rot upon the 
ground which has been reddened with his blood. More 
vultures than women will crowd around him." The warrior 
of the olden time, in danger of receiving a treacherous 
arrow, had the same contempt for the bow and the archers 
which the knights of the Middle Ages, burdened with their 
armour, might have felt for fire-arms in the first years of 
the use of gunpowder. 

It must not, however, be concluded from what we have 
said that the bow was regarded as a vile and contemptible 
weapon, not worthy to be used by free 
men. Even the most disdainful were 
forced to own that it was an advance 
upon earlier inventions, among them the 
sling, which itself was an improvement on 
the stone thrown by the hand. 

The sling is a weapon made of cord or The siing in Action, 
of hide, at the end of which a stone more 
or less heavy is placed, to be thrown to a distance. It is 
unnecessary to describe an instrument which is a plaything 
in the hands of every schoolboy, but it may be stated that 
its principle is the bringing into play of centrifugal force. 
The stone, swung round in the sling, tends to fly off at a 
tangent, and tightens the sling with an intensity which is 
proportionate to the centrifugal force ; but it is held back 
by the hand, which in whirling round the sling restrains the 
flight of the charge it contains. The stone escapes at a 
tangent the instant the hand ceases to act 

The inhabitants of Palestine made use in very ancient 
times of this dangerous weapon, the most skilful in its 
use being the tribe of Benjamin, whose boast it was never 




250 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

to miss their aim (Judges xx. 16). What makes their 
skill appear more surprising still was that they managed 
the sling with the left hand. The men who came to 
David's help at Ziklag were no less adroit ; they used 
at will either the right hand or the left. David was worthy 
of such allies, as is proved by his victory over the giant 
Goliath, whom he brought to the earth with a pebble shot 
in this way. The sling seems to have been in ancient 
times the favourite weapon of shepherds, who with it drove 
away wild beasts preying on their flocks. David's skill 
is therefore the less surprising, for no doubt he had great 
practice in the use of this instrument while guarding his 
father's sheep. 

It has been asserted that the Asiatic nations excelled all 
Europeans in the management of the sling ; but this is not 
warranted, at least in the case of the inhabitants of the 
Balearic Isles, whose wonderful skill has passed into a 
proverb. They threw more murderous projectiles with their 
slings than with any othei discharging weapon, making use 
of them even in attacking towns, and with the stones which 
they hurled from them in pitched battles breaking even the 
bucklers, helmets, and javelins of their enemies. " These 
natives have such a skill of hand," says Diodorus of Sicily, 
" that it very rarely happens that they miss their aim. 
What makes them so great in the use of the sling is the 
training given them from their earliest years by their 
mothers, who set up a piece of bread hung at the end of 
a rod as a target, and let their children remain without 
food until they have hit it, when they receive it as the 
reward of their skill and patience." 

The slings of the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles were 
made of a piece of rush or cane. Each man usually 



THE SLING AND ITS USE. 251 

possessed three, of different lengths, corresponding with the 
distances to which the stone was to be thrown. The 
slings used by other nations were made of hide or plaited 
cord. The Greeks employed three thongs ; among others 
the instrument was made of one -only. It was not known 
"ill Greece in the earliest times, and is not mentioned by 
Homer. At a later period the Acarnanians were con- 
sidered the most skilful slingers of Greece ; next came 
the Achaians, especially those of ^Egium, of Patrse, and 
of Dyme. The weapon was used to throw not only stones 
but balls of lead, and in some localities, especially in the 
Plain of Marathon, many of these projectiles of metal have 
been found. These relics are interesting from the inscrip- 
tions and devices which are cut upon them, and which 
consist of the names of persons and appropriate epithets, 
the legend in many cases meaning, when freely translated, 
"Lookout!" 

The soldiers always carried with them a supply of these 
projectiles in a fold of their tunic, which formed a sort 
of bag, as may be seen in the ancient sculptures. The 
bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column exhibit a slinger of the 
Roman army, some German auxiliary, having his pallium 
supplied with projectiles, his sling in his hand, his arm 
extended to brandish his weapon above his head. The 
Romans maintained troops of slingers, who, like the 
archers, harassed the enemy with volleys of stones and 
bullets, and as soon as their position became serious, fell 
back into the rear. The range of these slings is said to 
have been 600 Roman feet. 

The French and English armies also in early times 
included slingers, who were retained even after the in- 
vention of gunpowder, and the Spaniards made use of the 



252 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

instrument down to the middle of the fourteenth century. 
I doubt if these slingers would have had any chance with 
the people mentioned by Aristotle, who, when they saw a 
flock of birds passing above their heads, arranged among 
themselves for the turns of- bringing them down, each one 
fixing upon a particular bird as his mark, so certain were 
they of not missing them. 

In the course of time the sling changed its form, and 
ceased to be itself held in the hand. The English began 
to attach it to a solid piece of wood, which the slinger held 
in his two hands. 

It may here be remarked that though the inventions of 
man grow old and disappear before others which more 
fully meet the wants of the time, they are never entirely 
lost, but are to be found still existing in remote corners 
of the globe. It may be said that man cannot allow even 
the smallest portion of his works to return to nothingness. 
Thus, the use of the sling is not lost, for at the present day 
it is practised at the fetes of certain peoples who inhabit 
mountainous countries. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE BOW IN ANCIENT TIMES. 

The Bow in Asia — The Bow of the Greeks, difficult to lift and wield— 
Penelope's Suitors — Telemachus — Ulysses' Bow — Others in Virgil 
— The poor Acestes — An Arrow that takes fire in the Air. 

The bow, like the sling, was originally an Asiatic weapon, 
or was, at least, more especially characteristic of the peoples 
of the East than of those of Europe. Almost all the troops 
of which the army of Xerxes was composed, on the occasion 
of the invasion of Greece, were, according to Herodotus, 
furnished with the bow. But the Asiatic bow differed in 
form from that used in Greece ; the first resembled a cres^- 
cent, the other consisted of two circular parts, or a double 
crescent joined in the middle. Of the latter shape is the 
bow described by Homer in the " Iliad," and represented in 
the ancient sculptures. " Pandarus seized his shining bow/ 1 
says Homer, " made of the horns of a wild she-goat 
The horns, sixteen hands' breadth long, were worked and 
polished by an able workman, and jointed with gold." 

Skill did not alone suffice, as may well be believed, to 
make a good archer ; the first qualification was strength 
sufficient to bend the bow, by no means an easy task in the 
Homeric age. Witness the great scene in the " Odyssey," 
when Ulysses, returning from his wanderings, finds the 
suitors of Penelope attempting, in every case, though the 
prize is the hand of the lady, to wield his own enormous 
bow :— . 



254 W0NDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

" Hear me," she cried, " ye noble suitors, who press 
heavily upon this house to eat and to drink without ceasing, 
my husband being absent for a long time; nor have ye 
been able to make any other pretext for your sojourn, 
but as desiring to marry me, and make me your wife. But 
come, suitors, since this contest has appeared, for I will 
put down the great bow of divine Ulysses, and whoever 
shall most easily stretch the bow in his hands, and shall 
dart an arrow through the whole twelve rings, him will I 
follow, leaving this house which I entered as a virgin very* 
beautiful, full of the means of livelihood, which I think 
I shall sometimes remember, even in a dream." The 
suitors in vain exerted their utmost strength ; the bow of 
the divine Ulysses was too much for them; and one of 
them was obliged to say to Melanthius, the goatherd, 
" Hasten now, light a fire in the palace, and near it place 
a large seat and skins upon it, and bring out a large roll 
of suet which is within, that we young men, warming the 
bow and anointing it with fat, may try it and end the 
contest." Telemachus, in his turn, tried thrice to bend 
the bow, but in vain; and Ulysses himself, who having 
returned to his palace in disguise, seized the bow, tried the 
string, which, says the poet, " twanged beautifully, like unto 
a swallow in the voice," and the arrow, at length shot off, 
went through the centres of all the rings, from the first to 
the last, and stuck at last in the door of the hall, to the 
great astonishment of the suitors. 

In the " Iliad " mention is made of certain archers who 
contended for the prize for bird shooting at the games in 
honour of the death of Patroclus. Achilles caused the 
mast of a ship to be erected in the sand, at the end of 
which was attached a cord with a pigeon tied to it. The 



THE BOW IN ANCIENT TIMES. 



255 



two competitors were Teucer and Meriones, and the lot to 
have the first shot fell to Teucer. " This hero shot a bolt 
which flew with rapidity, but as he had not promised to 
sacrifice to Apollo a splendid hecatomb of young lambs, 
the god prevented him from hitting his mark. The. arrow 
missed the pigeon, but cut the the cord fastened to its feet. 
The pigeon rose into the air, the cord fell to the earth." 




Shooting with the Bow amongst the Ancients. (From a painted ^ 
in the Naples Museum.) 



Meriones, who stood with his arrow ready, snatched the 
bow from the hands of Teucer, followed with his eye the 
pigeon as it rose to the clouds, shot his arrow, and struck 
the bird under the wing. It fell at Meriones' feet, and 
he was proclaimed conqueror, amid the plaudits of the 
whole army. 

After the Greek poet, the Latin. ^Eneas has among 
the companions of his toils several excellent archers, who 
give proofs of their skill at the games in honour of the 
manes of Anchises. Virgil, in the fifth book of the "iEneid," 



25 6 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

pits himself against Homer, on whose narrative he tries 
to improve by speaking of an arrow shot with such force 
that it takes fire in its flight through the air. ^Eneas invites 
to the fete the most skilful archers, to whom he offers 
prizes $ and to the end of the mast of a ship he ties with a 
thin cord a pigeon, at which the marksmen have to shoot. 
The competitors, when they have assembled, place their 
names in a brass vessel, and the first which comes out 
by lot is that of Hippocoon, the son of Hyrtacus, who is 
greeted with loud applause. After him came Mnestheus, 
who had proved so easy a winner in the aquatic contest, 
and whose head was still encircled with the green palm. 
The third is Eurytion, and the last Acestes, who does not 
fear to enter the lists with the young men. 

Each with a vigorous hand bends the flexible bow 
and draws an arrow from the quiver. The first despatched 
on its mission is that of young Hippocoon ; the cord 
shakes, and the arrow, whirling through the air, strikes the 
mast, in which it buries itself. The wood trembles, the 
frightened dove flutters its wings, and the crowd raise 
shouts of applause. The bold Mnestheus next advances 
his bow bent, his mien haughty, his eyes and arrow 
directed to the living target. He does not, however, 
succeed in hitting the mark, for he only cuts the cord that 
confined the pigeon, which at once takes flight towards the 
black clouds. The impatient Eurytion, who has long been 
keeping his bow on the stretch, follows with his eyes the 
course of the bird, which the arrow strikes under the wing, 
and it falls to the earth, bringing with it the weapon that 
has killed it. There remains now nothing for Acestes, the 
last competitor, who has lost the palm simply because there 
is no target. But the shooting of jthe others is to be com- 



THE BOW IN ANCIENT TIMES. 257 

pletely put into the shade, for the arrow which the old man 
discharges flies through the air with such incredible speed 
that the feathers with which it is winged take fire, its passage 
is marked by a train of flame, and at length it is lost in the 
atmosphere, like the shooting stars, which, flying from the 
vault of heaven across the sky, drag after them long trains 
of brilliant light The spectators look on speechless, and 




Archer bending his Bow. 
(From a painted vase in the Museum of the Louvre.) 

pray to the gods, while JEne&s embraces Acestes, loads 
him with presents, and addresses him thus : " Take these, 
O old man ! for the great god of Olympus by such a portent 
has shown his desire to raise thee above thy rivals. It 
is Anchises who rewards thee by my hands; accept this 
chased bowl, with which the King of Thrace presented my 
father as a mark of his friendship." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NATIONS MOST CELEBRATED AS ARCHERS. 

Scythian Archers — Law of the Persians — Cambyses slays an Infant in 
order to show his Skill as an Archer— The Parthians — They fight 
only during the Day — Swallows shot on the Wing — The Bow 
among the Romans — The Horns of the Emperor Domitian — 
Commodus and his Prowess — Three Arrows shot from the one 
Bow at the same time — The Greeks and the Crusaders — The 
Caboclos of Brazil. 

The Scythians, the Parthians, the Persians, and the Cretans, 
are believed to have been the most accomplished archers 
among the nations of antiquity. The Scythians, according 
to Plato, shot equally well with the right hand and the left. 
The kings of Media employed Scythians as instructors in 
archery, and Cyaxares engaged individuals of this nation to 
instruct his son in the art. Among the Persians there 
existed a law which enforced the instruction of all children 
from the fifth to the twentieth year in three things — first, 
horsemanship ; second, shooting with the bow ; third, 
invariably telling the truth. 

Cyrus was from his infancy accustomed to the use of the 
bow, and Cambyses, his son, was a most expert archer. On 
one occasion the latter gave a frightful proof of his skill, 
which was equally an evidence of the cruelty of his dis- 
position. The story is told by Herodotus, who says that, 
"Prexaspes was the chief ambassador of Cambyses, and 
his son was the great ruler's cupbearer, a position of much 



THE NATIONS MOST CELEBRATED AS ARCHERS. 259 

honour. One day, Cambyses said to Prexaspes, 'Tell me, 
I pray thee, one thing. What do the Persians think of 
me ? What sort of man am I in their eyes ?' l O king/ 
answered the ambassador, ' they think highly of thee in all 
respects except one. They say that you are too much 
addicted to wine* — a reply which greatly angered his 
master. * I understand,' said he, ' the Persians mean that, 
being too much given to wine, my reason is affected, and 
I rave. Then what they said of me lately was not the 
truth?' This question had reference to an incident that had 
taken place only a short time previously. In a full assembly 
of the Persians, Crcesus of Lydia being present, Cambyses 
asked what they thought of him as compared with his 
father Cyrus, and received for answer that they esteemed 
him greater than his father, since he not only ruled over all 
the countries which Cyrus possessed, but had added to 
them by the conquest of Egypt and the seas. This was 
the reply of the Persians ; but Croesus, not content with 
offering such a moderate tribute of esteem, said, 'Son of 
Cyrus, I do not consider you as great as your father, for 
you have not yet given us a son equal to him whom he 
left us ! ' Delighted with these words, Cambyses praised the 
judgment of Crcesus. 

" Recollecting this incident, what was his rage when he 
heard Prexaspes say that the Persians thought him a 
drunkard ! ' Decide at once, yourself,' cried he to 
Prexaspes, 'whether the Persians speak the truth, and 
whether, in forming such opinions of me, they are acting 
the part of just and wise men. Behold ! I shall shoot at 
your son, who is now under the portico, and if my arrow 
strikes him in the centre of the heart, the Persians are 
fools; on the contrary, if I fail to do so, their talk will have 

Q 2 



260 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

an appearance of truth, and I am a fool/ So saying, he 
bent his bow, and, discharging his arrow, Prexaspes' son 
fell dead in a moment. The king gave orders that the 
body should be opened on the spot, that the wound might 
be examined and his skill tested. It was found that the 
arrow had transfixed the heart. Then the king, smiling 
with joy, turned to Prexaspes. 'You can see now/ said 
he, ' that I am not foolish, and that the Persians are mis- 
taken. Tell me, I pray you, have you ever seen any man hit 
his mark more truly?' Prexaspes, judging that Cambyses 
had lost his senses, returned an answer which the king no 
doubt regarded as praise, but which shows that the poor 
father's heart was broken. ' Master/ said he, ' I do not 
think that even a god could have shot such a fatal arrow.' " 

Cambyses always carried his bow by his side for use 
when required ; for we read in another passage in Hero- 
dotus that, displeased with some opinion of his conduct 
which Crcesus the Lydian had expressed, he suddenly seized 
his bow to punish his imprudent adviser, who had only 
time to escape the shaft. His jealousy of his brother 
Smerdis arose, it is said, from the circumstance that he 
alone among all the Persians had been able to bend a 
great bow sent by the King of Ethiopia. 

The Parthians were a nation of archers and horsemen. 
Their army was composed almost entirely of light cavalry, 
splendidly mounted on horses of incomparable speed, and 
armed with bows of such astonishing strength as to be 
capable of sending arrows through the hardest substances. 
With their arrows they could pierce bucklers and cuirasses, 
and, as it were, nail the hands of their enemies to their 
bodies. " They have," says Dion Cassius, " very few 
infantry, and these are but poor soldiers; but even they 



THE NATIONS MOST CELEBRATED AS ARCHERS, 26 1 

are archers, for every one in this country practises shooting 
with the bow from his childhood. Their manner of fighting 
is determined by the nature of the soil and the climate. 
Their country, which consists in great part of plains, affords 
endless pasture for horses, and is very suitable for the 
evolutions of cavalry. In time of war they carry with them 
great droves of horses to enable them to change their 
mount whenever they please, to attack with suddenness 
the most distant points, and to escape with the utmost 
rapidity. Their sky contains no moisture, and this gives 
to their bows an invariable strength of tension, except in 
winter, when they undertake no warlike expedition." 

The Parthians not only avoided battle during this 
season, but they also refused to fight after sunset, as we 
find from Dion Cassius and Plutarch, though these authors 
do not give us the reason. At the fall of day the warriors 
flew upon their swift steeds from the field, perhaps because 
the abundant dew that fell from the clear sky during the 
night relaxed and took the elasticity out of their bows. 
Besides, even in the brightest night, a battle to be decided 
mainly by successful use of the bow and arrow, could 
not be conducted with any well-assured hope of victory. 

The tactics of the Parthians consisted in out-flanking 
the enemy, in surrounding him, and having once got him 
within a circle that gradually closed in upon him, in crush- 
ing him under a shower of arrows. And they were never 
in want of projectiles, for camels laden with ammunition 
followed the army in the campaign. In order that the 
flights might tell with greater effect, their custom was 
to withdraw to a suitable distance from the enemy, and it 
was this space between the two armies that the Roman 
soldiers were always anxious to lessen. 



262 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

In Greece the Cretans were the only people skilled as 
bowmen. It is known that Philip, king of Macedonia, 
father of Alexander the Great, was blind of one eye — a 
defect caused by an arrow shot by a most expert archer 
of Amphipolis, named Aster, who had conceived an ill-will 
towards the king because he would not engage him in his 
service. He came to Philip, offered to join his army, and 
stated that he was so skilled in the use of the bow that he 
never failed to hit a swallow on the wing. " Very well," 
answered Philip, who thought it beneath him to make use 
of such an auxiliary, "I shall engage you whenever I under- 
take a war upon swallows." The archer, thus insulted, 
resolved to be revenged, and it was not long before he found 
an opportunity. Philip having laid siege to a certain town, 
Aster smuggled himself into the place, and watched from 
the ramparts all the movements of his enemy. One 
day, observing the king advancing at the head of a body of 
troops towards the gate of the town, he took an arrow which 
he had inscribed with the words "To the right eye of 
Philip." The arrow reached its goal. Philip having lost 
his eye, answered with an arrow bearing the legend, " If 
the town is taken, Aster will be hanged." It is needless 
to say that the town was taken, and the archer hanged; 
but never after this time did Philip allow any one to speak 
of the blind in his presence. 

The Romans did not look upon the bow as a national 
weapon, and the archers who served in their armies were 
mercenaries. The emperors, however, did not disdain to 
practise this exercise ; and among others, Domitian, who 
was not in other respects a lover of arms or of war, took 
pleasure in shooting with the bow, and excelled in the art. 
He is known to have practised in his domains, bringing 



THE NATIONS MOST CELEBRATED AS ARCHERS. 263 

down hundreds of animals, and amusing himself by making 
his arrows fly in such a fashion that they stuck in the heads 
of his prey, one on the right side, another on the left, like 
natural horns. It was he too, who, having placed a young 
man some distance from him, with the right hand raised 
in the air and the fingers spread out, shot with such skill 
that the arrows passed through the interstices without even 
grazing the skin. 

The Emperor Commodus was still more expert in the 
use of the bow and arrow. The Parthians and the Moors 
had taught him, the former to handle these weapons, the 
latter to throw the javelin. But the pupil far surpassed his 
masters, who were in ecstasies about his wonderful pro- 
ficiency; for he i\ever missed his mark, and struck down 
as many animals as he aimed at. Herodian says that one 
day he had a hundred lions brought into the arena, and 
killed them all one after the other with a like number of 
javelins. The animals were left lying on the sand, that 
every one might count them at his leisure, and judge for 
himself of the prowess of the emperor. He ordained public 
games, and had it proclaimed that he himself would appear 
in the arena, and in his own person kill all the animals 
that should be let loose. The announcement attracted 
people from the whole of Italy into Rome, and on the day 
appointed multitudes thronged the amphitheatre. Outside 
the circus was raised a gallery, from which the emperor was 
to show his skill. At first he practised on stags and deer, 
and the like, which he despatched from his balcony, and 
afterwards hurled his javelin against th$ lions and other 
ferocious beasts. Never did he aim twice at the same 
animal, for every one of his strokes was mortal, his weapon 
striking either on the head or going right to the heart. He 



264 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

had gathered together for this great battue the most rare 
and extraordinary specimens that had been caught in 
Ethiopia and the Indies. It was Domitian who first caused 
to be exhibited at Rome certain species of animals that up 
to that time had been known only from pictures. Among 
these were Mauritanian ostriches, which astonished the 
Romans by the swiftness of their flight, and which Corn- 
modus shctt from his gallery with arrows having crescent- 
shaped iron heads. His aim was so exact, that with these 
broad-headed weapons he literally decapitated every one 
of the wretched birds, which, by the impulse of their flight, 
ran on for a brief space headless. At another time, 
seeing a man in the fearful embrace of a panther, and on the 
point of being strangled and devoured, the emperor with 
a single arrow killed the animal without touching the man. 
This "clever hit" recalls a still more remarkable example of 
skill, which forms the substance of an epigram of the Greek 
Anthology. The subject is a father seeing his son in the 
coils of a serpent, and hesitating between the desire to 
save his child and the fear of doing him an injury. " Alcon, 
at the sight of his infant, whom a deadly poisonous serpent 
held in its embraces, bent his bow with fear and trembling. 
He did not miss the monster, for the arrow entered the 
mouth of the serpent a little above the head of the child. 
Thus the animal was killed, and the father has suspended 
his bow upon this oak in witness of his good fortune and 
his skill." 

The archers of antiquity shot their arrows to a distance 
of 574 feet, according to the report of Vegetius, and it has 
been said that with this light missile they effected a greater 
destruction of the enemy than did the infantry in the earlier 
years of the invention of fire-arms. 



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THE NATIONS MOST CELEBRATED AS ARCHERS. 267 

The Greeks of the Eastern empire were no less accom- 
plished in shooting with the bow than their ancestors. 
Zosimus, a historian of the fifteenth century, speaks of an 
archer named Menelaus, who, with a single bow, shot off 
three arrows at one and the same instant, all of which 
itruck the different targets at which they were aimed ! 
This seems certainly so very extraordinary a feat, that it is 
to be feared the writer drew a longer bow than the expert 
to whom he referred. Among the people of the eastern 
empire, greater astonishment was excited by the wonderful 
skill of the crusaders, who shot their arrows with such 
effect that they pierced the thickest bucklers, and, accord- 
ing to Comninus, sank every part of them in the ramparts 
of besieged towns. In order to bend their great bows, the 
archers of those times, lying on their backs, pressing their 
feet against the wood, drew the cord to the height of their 
eyes, and shot in this singular attitude. 

Certain savage races also shoot in this position. The 
painter Debret saw in the vicinity of the town of San Pedro 
de Cantagallo (Brazil) a number of Indians who shot their 
arrows in this manner with surprising skill. Among their other 
performances the author mentioned that each chose the 
smallest of his bows, and sat down on the ground in the 
middle of a little circle that had been previously drawn. 
Then suddenly springing to his feet, he shot the arrow up 
perpendicularly, and when it came down again, it fell within 
the circle. These Indians, the Caboclos, are of great 
assistance to naturalists and travellers, whom they guide 
through the virgin forests, procuring for them specimens of 
the rare birds and animals which they require for their 
collections, and maintaining a commissariat well stocked 
with meat and fresh fish. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 

His Birth — His Companions — Arrows shot the Distance of a Mile 
Episode from " Ivanhoe" — Locksley — The Willow Wand — The 
Ballad of Adam Bell — William of Cloudesley and his Skill- 
Shooting with the Bow, and standing on one Foot. 

" A famous man was Robin Hood " — so renowned, indeed, 
that we may rank him at once in the same class with the best 
archers of antiquity, of whom he, for his part, doubtless 
never heard in his life. The names of the Parthians, 
Scythians, Persians, and Cretans, were not likely to reach 
the ears of the archers of the middle ages. 

According to the opinion generally entertained Robin 
Hood lived during the reign of Richard Cceur de Lion. 
The following epitaph, engraved upon his tombstone found 
near Kirklees in the county of York, gives as the date of 
his death 24th of December, 1247 ; but neither the stone 
nor its inscription is regarded as genuine : — 

tym utmtvntati) sis lattl stean 
late vabtvt earl of ijuntingttm 
nea arcir tier as %i sae getm 
m pfpl fcauto im Kota ^eun 
sick utlafos as %i an # men 
til Cnoplann nitrir si agen 

obiit 24 Kali Dekembris 1 247 

The Robin Hood of the ballads appears to have been the 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD, 269 

most celebrated of those foresters, often called " outlaws," 
who lived in the great woods of England, and who, while 
taking part in the cause of national independence against 
the Norman kings, employed themselves chiefly in chasing 
the game, and levying black mail upon wayfarers. The 
ordinary residence of this celebrated poacher and robber 
was the forest of Shirewood in the county of Nottingham, 
then called in the Saxon language " Sire-vbde." It extended 
at that time for many miles, reaching even to the middle of 
the county of York. 

According to certain authorities, he was of noble birth, 
and was named Robert Fitz-Ooth ; he had even, they say — 
as will be seen from the inscription quoted — the right of 
bearing the title of the Earl of Huntingdon ; but, having led 
in his youth a careless life, and squandered the greater 
portion of his patrimony, he was obliged to take refuge in 
the woods, while the remains of his fortune were seized by 
a sheriff and an abbot, a circumstance which goes far to 
explain Robin's dislike to the clergy and to civic officious- 
ness. It is not probable that he was of such high birth. He 
loved the people too well, and did too much good to poor 
men, giving to them of his possessions (which, to be sure, 
had been but a short time before the possessions of others), 
not to have belonged to the ranks of the humbler classes. 

Robin Hood, who was the best-hearted man in the 
world, was at the same time the most daring of poachers, 
and what is more important for our purpose, the most 
skilful archer of his day. His band was composed of a 
hundred as desperate fellows and almost as good bowmen 
as himself. Several of them, immortalised in ballads, live 
still in the memory of the people — Mutch, the Miller's son, 
old Scathelock, Robin's right -nand man Little John, so nick- 



270 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

named because of his almost giganticf stature, and finally, 
the chaplain of the band, Friar Tuck, the soldier-monk, 
who fought in his gown with an oak cudgel. It is this lay 
brother, this very good liver — " who lives a good life, is 
sure to live well" — that Sir Walter Scott has made famous in 
his romance of "Ivanhoe," under the name of the "Hermit 
of Copmanhurst" Robin Hood's brave troop spent much 
of their time in " driving dull care away ;" or, rather, in 
enjoying the freedom of their lawless lives. They were 
kind to their prisoners, shedding no blood except in their 
own defence and to escape capture ; and loved better 
to shed wine, an operation which Friar Tuck understood 
particularly well. 

The adventurous spirit of the captain of this band, his 
resistance of tyrannical laws, his humanity, the protection he 
afforded to the weak, his love of archery, and his wonderful 
skill as a bowman, were enough to make the name of 
Robin Hood popular. The localities which he frequented, 
the springs and wells at which he was accustomed to stop, 
and from which he drank, the places in which he is believed 
to have slept, are to the present day held in veneration, 
and visited by enthusiastic admirers. His hunting-horn 
is as highly esteemed as that of Roland in France. 
Formerly, games and fetes were celebrated in his honour. 
Clubs of archers and cross-bowmen assumed him as their 
patron. Archers swore by his bow, which, down to the 
end of the last century, was preserved, together with one 
of his arrows, at Fountains Abbey. 

It was with this weapon that he accomplished his 
remarkable feats, with regard to which, however, history 
is silent. All that it says of him is embraced in phrases 
like the following, from Thierry's " Histoire de la Conquete 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 27I 

de l'Angleterre par les Normands :" — " Among the outlaws 
was the famous robber, Robin Hood, whose memory the 
common people celebrate in games and plays, and whose 
story, sung by the minstrels, is to them of greater interest 
than any romance in the world." 

To know more of the life and adventures of this great 
forester one must consult the ballads, but even these do 
not mention any of his great triumphs of skill. Sir Walter 
Scott, however, attributes to him one feat, which all who 
have read " Ivanhoe " will remember — and who has not ? 
The great novelist has not invented the facts ; he has 
only borrowed them from ballads referring to archers who 
are stated to have lived before Robin Hood, and in his 
justification it may be said that if the exploit was not 
Robin's, it was worthy of him. In any case it was per- 
formed by an Englishman. 

Before quoting Scott, let us see what tradition says of 
our hero. It is stated that Robin Hood and his faithful' 
Little John sometimes shot arrows to the distance of a mile., 
Charlton, in his " History of Whitby," says that, according 
to tradition, the two happened to dine one day with 
Richard, the Prior of the Abbey of Whitby, who, having 
heard of the fame of his guests as archers, asked them, 
when they had dined, to give him a specimen of their skill. 
To oblige the prior they mounted to the top of the monas- 
tery, and from that high position discharged their arrows, 
which fell near Whitby Bath, a good mile distant from the 
abbey. In commemoration of the feat, the prior had a 
pillar erected on the spot where the two arrows were found, 
and this may be seen to the present day. The honest old 
author adds with naivete, " that the circumstance would 
perhaps shake the convictions of some of my readers." 



272 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

Sir Walter Scott, as we all know, has introduced Robin 
Hood into " Ivanhoe," under the name of Locksley, a 
name which, in fact, Robin sometimes assumed, just as he 
often disguised himself in various ways to baffle pursuit. 

At the close of the tourney at Ashby, when King John, 
annoyed with an archer whom he had observed in the crowd, 
who had been heard to make certain disloyal remarks, com- 
pelled him to take part in the shooting which terminated the 
display. A buckler was set up as a target, and among the 
competitors, a guard who came forward, seemed to be the 
most skilful of all. But Sir Walter's own words must be 
quoted : — 

" 'Now, Locks. 1 ey/ said Prince John to the bold yeoman, 
with a bitter smile, t wilt thou try conclusions with Hubert, 
or wilt thou yield up bow, baldric, and quiver to the provost 
of the sports?' 

" 6 Sith it be no better,' said Locksley, i I am content to 
try my fortune; on condition that when I have shot two 
shafts at yonder mark of Hubert's, he shall be bound to 
shoot one at that which I shall propose/ 

" 'That is but fair/ answered Prince John, 'and it shall 
not be refused thee. If thou dost beat this braggart, Hubert, 
I will fill the bugle with silver pennies for thee.' 

" ' A man can do but his best/ answered Hubert ; ' but 
my grandsire drew a good long-bow at Hastings, and I trust 
not to dishonour his memory/ 

" The former target was now removed, and a fresh one 
of the same size placed in its room. Hubert, who, as victor 
in the first trial of skill, had the right to shoot first, took his 
aim with great deliberation, long measuring the dis-tance 
with his eye, while he held in his hand his bended bow, 
with the arrow placed on the string. At length he made a 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 273 

step forward, and raising the bow at the full stretch of his 
left arm, till the centre or grasping place was nigh level 
with his face, he drew his bowstring to his ear. The 
arrow whistled through the air, and lighted within the 
inner ring of the target, but not exactly in the centre. 

"'You have not allowed for the wind, Hubert/ said 
his antagonist, bending his bow, ' or that had been a better 
shot' 

" So saying, ' and without showing the least anxiety 
to pause upon his aim, Locksley stept to the appointed 
station, and shot his arrow as carelessly in appearance 
as if he had not even looked at the mark. He was 
speaking almost at the instant that the shaft left the 
bowstring, yet it alighted in the target two inches nearer 
to die white spot which marked the centre than that of 
Hubert. 

" i By the light of Heaven !' said Prince John to Hubert, 
• an thou suffer that runagate knave to overcome thee, thou 
art worthy of the gallows.' 

" Hubert had but one set speech for all occasions. ' An 
your highness were to hang me/ he said, ' a man can but 
do his best. Nevertheless, my grandsire drew a good 
bow 

" ' The foul fiend on thy grandsire and all his genera- 
tion !' interrupted John ; 'shoot, knave, and shoot thy best, 
or it shall be the worse for thee !' 

"Thus exhorted, Hubert resumed his place, and not 
neglecting the caution which he had received from his 
adversary, he made the necessary allowance for a very 
light air of wind, which had just arisen, and shot so suc- 
cessfully that his arrow alighted in the very centre of the 
target 

s 



2 74 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

"'A Hubert! a Hubert !' shouted the populace, more 
interested in a known person than in a stranger. ' In the 
clout ! — in the clout ! — a Hubert for ever.' 

" ' Thou canst not mend that shot, Locksley,' said the 
Prince, with an insulting smile. 

" ' I will notch his shaft for him, however/ replied 
Locksley. 

" And letting fly his arrow with a little more precaution 
than before, it lighted right upon that of his competitor, 
which it split to shivers. The people who stood around 
were so astonished at his wonderful dexterity, that they 
could not even give vent to their surprise in their usual 
clamour. ' This must be the devil, and no man of flesh 
and blood,' whispered the yeomen to each other ; ' such 
archery was never seen since a bow was first bent in 
Britain.' 

" ' And now, said Locksley, ' I will crave your Grace's 
permission to plant such a mark as is used in the North 
country ; and welcome every brave yeoman who shall try 
a shot at it to win a smile from the bonny lass he loves 
best.' 

" He then turned to leave the lists. * Let your guards 
attend me,' he said, * if you please — I go but to cut a rod 
from the next willow-bush.' 

Prince John made a signal that some attendants should 
follow him in case of his escape ; but the cry of ' Shame ! 
shame !' which burst from the multitude, induced him to 
alter his ungenerous purpose. 

" Locksley returned almost instantly with a willow 
wand about six feet in length, perfectly straight, and rather 
thicker than a man's thumb. He began to peel this with 
great composure, observing at the same time, that to ask 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 275 

a good woodsman to shoot at a target so broad as had 
hitherto been used was to put shame upon his skill. 
* For his own part/ he said, ' and in the land where he was 
bred, men would as soon take for their mark King Arthur's 
round-table, which held sixty knights around it. A child 
of seven years old/ he said, ' might hit yonder target with a 
headless shaft; but/ added he, walking deliberately to the 
other end of the lists, and sticking the willow wand upright 
in the ground, ' he that hits that rod at five-score yards, I 
call him an archer fit to bear both bow and quiver before 
a king, an it were the stout King Richard himself/ 

" ' My grandsire/ said Hubert, 'drew a good bow at the 
battle of Hastings, and never shot at such a mark in his 
life — and neither will I. If this yeoman can cleave that rod, 
I give him the bucklers — or rather, I yield to the devil that 
is in his jerkin, and not to any human skill ; a man can but 
do his best, and I will not shoot where I am sure to miss # 
I might as well shoot at the edge of our parson's whittle, or 
at a wheat-straw, or at a sunbeam, as at a twinkling white 
streak which I can hardly see/ 

" ' Cowardly dog V said Prince John. i Sirrah Locksley, 
do thou shoot ; but if thou hittest such a mark, I will 
say thou art the first man ever did so. Howe'er it be, 
thou shalt not crow over us with a mere show of superior 
skill/ 

U * I will do my best, as Hubert says/ answered Locksley, 
1 no man can do more/ 

" So saying, he again bent his bow, but on the present 
occasion looked with attention to his weapon, and changed 
the string, which he thought was no longer truly round, 
having been a little frayed by the two former shots. He then 
took his aim with some deliberation, and the multitude 

R 2 



276 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

awaited the event in breathless silence. The archer vindicated 
their opinion of his skill : his arrow split the willow rod 
against which it was aimed. A jubilee of acclamations 
followed ; and even Prince John, in admiration of Locksley's 
skill, lost for an instant his dislike to his person. ' These 
twenty nobles/ he said, * which, with the bugle, thou 
hast fairly won, are thine own ; we will make them fifty, 
if thou wilt take livery and service with us as a yeoman 
of our body guard, and be near to our person. For never 
did so strong a hand bend a bow, or so true an eye direct 
a shaft/ " 

This incident, Sir Walter, as we said, borrowed from a 
very old ballad, "Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and 
William of Cloudesley," three outlaws who were prede- 
cessors of Robin Hood, were as inseparable as that famous 
archer, Little John, and Friar Tuck, and, according to the 
ballad, were born in Cumberland. They were convicted 
of poaching, outlawed, and obliged to take to flight to 
escape the fate to which their offences doomed them. 
United by misfortune, says Augustin Thierry, they 
swore fraternity, according to the custom of the age, 
and fled together to dwell in the forest of Inglewood — 
called Englyshe wood in the old romance — between 
Carlisle and Penrith. Adam and Clym were unmarried, but 
William had a wife and children, whom he longed again to 
see. One day he told his companions that he wished to 
visit his family at Carlisle. "Brother/' said they, "don't 
go there, we advise you, for if the sheriff catches you you 
are a dead man." William set out in spite of this warning, 
and arrived at night in the town, where he was recognised, 
denounced, taken prisoner, and condemned to be hanged. 
He, however, like Robin Hood, was the friend of the com- 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 277 

mon people, and a little shepherd boy, who had met with 
some kindness at his hands, at once ran to the wood, and 
told Adam and Clym, who were successful in rescuing him. 
Then, 

M William sayde to his brethren two, 
This day let us lyve and de ; 
If ever you have nede as I have now, 
The same shall you find by me." 

At length, however, the three friends began to feel a 
distaste for the adventurous and wild life they led in the 
woods, and entering into negotiations with the agents of 
the king, came to London, in order to obtain from him a 
written agreement of peace. By means of the intercession 
of the queen they obtained their pardon ; but at the very 
time when the king was engaging his word to forget the 
past, a messenger arrived with the news of frightful excesses 
that had recently been committed by the three friends in 
the town of Carlisle. The king, who was at table when the 
news arrived, was thunderstruck, but told the three that 
they would have to compete with his own bowmen, and if 
they did not win, death should be their lot 

The archers bent their stout weapons, and discharged 
their arrows straight at the target. 

" Then spake Wyllyam of Cloudesl^ 
' By him that for me dyed, 
I hold him never no good archar 
That shoteth at buttes so wyde.* 

• At what a butte now wold ye shote^ 

I pray thee tell to me ?' 

• At such a but, syr,' he sayd, 

As men use in my countre.' n 

Then William went to the wood with his friends, and 



278 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

planted in the earth a hazel wand. Begging all present to 
be quiet a moment, he took his stand, bent his bow, and 
shot. The arrow split the wand in two. William of 
Cloudesley, however, according to the ballad, gave a still 
greater proof of his skill — acting the part, indeed, of a 
voluntary Tell. He addressed the king :— 

*' I have a sonne is seven yere old 5 
He is to me full deare ; 
I wyll hym tye to a stake, 
All shall se, that be here ; 

And lay an apple upon his head. 

And go syxe score hym fro, 
And I myself with a brode arow 

Shall cleve the apple in two." 

And he did it too. 

" But Cloudesle cleft the apple in two, 
His sonne he did not nee. 
'Ouer Gods forbode/ sayde the kynge^ 
1 That thou shold shote at me.' " 

Robin Hood is said to have sometimes missed in shoot- 
ing, and, according to one ballad, on a certain occasion by 
three fingers and more, when his disappointment was such 
that he flung away his bow in disgust. 

The character of these outlaws — especially of Robin 
Hood — has been greatly elevated and ennobled by the 
historian of the Norman conquest. Under his pen, Robin 
Hood is no longer the chief of a band of adventurers, but 
the patriotic leader who struggles against the invaders of 
his country. The band he commands is said to consist of 
those vanquished Saxons who would not submit to the 
authority of the Norman kings, and who preferred to 
wander at their own will unsheltered, unprotected by the 



THE ARCHER, ROBIN HOOD. 279 

law, to living quietly among those who submitted to their 
conquerors. 

Nothing proves more clearly the love of the English 
people for archery than the veneration with which the 
memory of Robin Hood was regarded in the first years 
after his death. He was honoured as a saint, and had a 
special day assigned him in the calendar, when labour was 
suspended, and the peasants were engrossed with feasting, 
dancing, and shooting with the bow. "In the 15th cen- 
tury," says Thierry, " this custom was still observed, and the 
descendants of Saxons and Normans alike took part in the 
amusements of the occasion, without dreaming that these 
were monuments of the hostility of their ancestors. On this 
day the workshops and the churches were deserted — no 
saint, no preacher attracted the people from their devotion 
to Robin Hood — and this state of things continued after 
the Reformation had given an impetus to religious zeal— a 
fact which is attested by an English bishop of the 16 th 
century (Latimer), who, in making his pastoral visitation, 
came one evening to a small town near London, and in- 
timated that he would preach on the following day. He 
went accordingly to church, but, to his astonishment, found 
the doors closed. He inquired of a person why this should 
be, and was answered, ■ Sir, this is a busy day with us ; we 
cannot listen to you. This is Robin Hood's day. All the 
people of the parish are away to cut branches in honour of 
Robin Hood, and it is of no use to wait for them/ The 
bishop had to put off his ecclesiastical costume, quit the 
place, and continue his journey, leaving the town to the 
archers clad in green, who played in the woods the roles of 
Robin Hood and Little John, and all the band." 

According to Holinshed, in the twelfth year of the reign 



28o WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

of Henry VIIL, the king, who was very young, and could 
not rest inactive, rose up early on May morn to go to gather 
green branches. He was richly clothed, his knights, squires, 
and gentlemen in white satin, his guards and yeomen in 
white taffeta. Each man carried a bow and arrows. They 
shot in the woods, and then returned, each one bearing a 
green branch in his cap. The people, who had heard thr.t 
the prince was out, came forth to see him shoot, for at this 
time his grace shot as far and as well as any of his guards. 
While the sport was going on, an archer presented himself 
before the king, and begged his majesty to stop for a 
moment and see a feat in archery, and the king, who was in 
good humour, complied. The archer then caught up his 
foot into his tunic as high as his breast, and, standing on 
the other foot, shot an arrow straight into the target — a feat 
which the king and all the court greatly admired. The 
archer received a good recompense for this proof of skill, 
and afterwards, both among the people and at court, the 
only name he got was Foot-in-Bosom. 



CHAPTER V. 

OTHER ENGLISH ARCHERS. 

The Bow in England — By whom was it Introduced ? — Richard Coeui 
de Lion — A Pincushion — The Siege of the Castle of Chalus — 
Death of King Richard — Who killed him? — The Kings of England 
—-Queen Victoria — The Archers of Wales — The Centaur — Fire 
Arrows — The Ancients and Moderns compared — The Turkish 
Ambassador at London — The Museum of the Society of Toxo- 
philites 

England has produced many archers of most incontestable 
skill, and the bow has been in use from a very early age. 
It is stated that the natives owed their first knowledge of it 
to Julius Caesar and the Roman army, but it is possible that 
the bow was introduced only by the Scandinavian invaders, 
who used it with a certain degree of success, as we know 
from the sagas of the skalds, or poets of the north. Ancient 
drawings frequently represent Saxon archers, and the weapon 
in these pictures shows a peculiarity — the string being fas- 
tened not to the extremities of the wood, but a little nearer 
the middle. It was only at the battle of Hastings that the 
Saxons learned, to their cost, the fatal effects of the bow — 
not the short massive instrument which they themselves 
wielded, but the long and slender one which the Normans 
used to such purpose. At the first discharge of the arrows 
shot by the Norman troops a strange and terrible panic 
seized the Saxons, and they imagined that the enemy were 
already in their midst 



282 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

The conquered race, however, soon became as good 
archers as their conquerors. After the battle of Hastings 
a general disarmament took place; but William of Nor- 
mandy, who was a subtle politician, permitted the van- 
quished of all ranks to carry and use this simple weapon. 
From that time the bow passed into the hands of the 
people, who became attached to it as to a friend, and 
always carried it about with them. They wished to rival 
and excel the Normans in its use, and some time after 
the Conquest it was to be seen in every castle and cottage, 
holding the place of honour above the fire. Country gentle- 
men and yeomen, when they walked over their domains, 
carried it as we carry the fowling-piece at the present day ; 
and, from the prince to the humblest of his subjects, it 
became the favourite, the national, arm. 

William himself was a most skilful archer, and few men 
were able to bend the bow which he used. Richard the First, 
under whose reign lived Robin Hood, of whom we have 
spoken in the preceding chapter, achieved great exploits 
with his archers in the Holy Land. At Jaffa, on one 
occasion, he rushed with a small band of ten knights upon 
a body of 15,000 Moslem horsemen, and in an instant he 
found himself in a cloud of arrows, not one of which, singu- 
larly enough, inflicted a wound. He regained his camp safe 
and sound, "reappearing," says a historian, "like a pin- 
cushion bristling with needles." The English monarch, 
however, at last fell a victim to his own imprudence. An 
arrow, more skilfully directed and more deadly than those 
shot by the Saracens, killed the Lion-hearted. The shaft, 
it is true, was not discharged from a bow, but an arbalet or 
cross-bow. 

Richard had laid siege to the Castle of Chalus in Limousin, 



OTHER ENGLISH ARCHERS. 283 

where a treasure had been discovered, of which he claimed 
possession as suzerain. Adhemar V., Count of Limoges, his 
vassal, consented to share it with him, but decidedly re- 
fused to give it all up. Richard, who rejected the offer of 
compromise, was making the circuit of the ramparts on the 
26th of March, n 99, when he was hit on the left shoulder 
by an arrow, which it is believed was poisoned. He tried 
himself to tear it from the wound ; but the shaft only came 
away, and the head, which remained behind, added every 
moment to the inflammation. When this took place, the 
king had with him, as usual, his constant companion, 
Mercadier, leader of the mercenaries, whose practice it was 
to sell themselves to the first adventurer who employed 
them. He and Richard were inseparable friends ; they 
travelled together constantly, they fought side by side, 
and the letters written from France by the king to his 
lords in England, always contained a word in praise of 
Mercadier. It was this knight who carried away the 
wounded monarch, had his wound dressed by the surgeon, 
and, in his absence, directed the assault on the castle. The 
place was taken and the garrison all hanged, with the 
exception of the cross-bowman by whom the king had been 
mortally wounded, and who was reserved for a more 
terrible fate. Richard, however, knowing that his end was 
approaching, entertained more generous sentiments than 
he had the credit of being possessed of, and before he died, 
expressed a wish to see the man to whom he owed this 
sudden end. 

" What wrong have I done you ?" asked he of the man. 

"What wrong !" cried the archer ; "thou hast killed my 
father and my brother, and at the present time you are 
preparing for my execution. But do what you will with 



284 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

me, I shall suffer gladly if you yourself perish. I shall 
have avenged the world for all the misery thou hast inflicted 
on it." 

"I pardon thee," said the king; but the young man 
refused his mercy. 

" Thou shalt live in spite of thyself," said Richard, " to 
be a witness to my clemency." 

The monarch then gave orders that his chains should 
be removed, that he should have a hundred English pence, 
and that he should be set at liberty. The story shows 
that Richard knew how to appreciate the qualities of a 
brother soldier, even though they had cost him his life. 
But his generous intentions were baffled, for Mercadier, 
disobeying his commands, detained the archer, flayed him 
alive, and afterwards hanged him on a gibbet. Historians 
are not agreed as to the name of the victim, and ascribe 
the death of the king to different persons. Bertrand de 
Gourdon, Pierre Bazile, and Jean Sandraz are mentioned 
among others ; and it is now generally believed that Pierre 
Bazile shot the fatal bolt. It could hardly have been De 
Gourdon — or at least, if so, he was not flayed alive by 
order of Mercadier, seeing that we hear of him some years 
later, swearing fidelity to Philip Augustus for the domain 
of Gourdon. The historians, in attributing to him the 
death of Richard, may have been led into error by as- 
signing the vengeance of Mercadier to personal antipathy ; 
for Bertrand de Gourdon belonged to a noble family 
which the chief of the mercenaries had despoiled of their 
property. 

Some other English sovereigns were very fond of 
archery, and among them Henry VIL, whose two sons, 
Prince Arthur and his brother, who was afterwards Henry 



OTHER ENGLISH ARCHERS. 285 

VIII., inherited their father's taste, and became excellent 
bowmen. The former often took part in this exercise in 
company with the archers of London at Mile End, and it 
was in remembrance of his remarkable skill that every good 
archer adopted the name of Arthur. The captain of the 
body of archers was further honoured with the title of 
"Prince Arthur," which was some years after, during the 
reign of Henry VIII., replaced by that of " Duke of Shore- 
ditch." The following were the circumstances under which 
this change took place. The king having one day arranged 
a shooting party at Windsor, a citizen of London, named 
Barlow, who lived at Shoreditch, introduced himself among 
the guests and eclipsed all by his dexterity. The prince 
was so charmed that he bestowed upon him in joke the 
title of Duke of Shoreditch, which the company of English 
archers afterwards appropriated to themselves. 

Among the other monarchs who cultivated the art with 
success, Edward VI. and Charles I. should be mentioned. 
The ladies of England, who take part in every exercise that 
befits their sex, and who have illustrious exemplars in Diana 
the huntress and the Amazons, also made themselves 
famous as archers. The Princess Margaret, daughter of 
Henry VII., and Queen Elizabeth, handled the bow with 
great dexterity. The latter, when at the house of Lord 
Montecute, at Castle Cowdrey, in Sussex, went out on the 
morning of the 19th of August, 1591, to ride in the park. 
Suddenly a nymph came forth from a wood, and presented 
a cross-bow to the royal lady, who, being able to use this as 
easily as the long bow, immediately began to shoot with it, 
directing the arrows against a herd of deer, three or four of 
which fell under her shafts. 

Queen Catherine of Portugal, wife of Charles II., did 



286 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

not practise archery — the long bow had gone pretty much 
out of fashion in the 17th century — but she bestowed all her 
patronage upon the Society of London Archers, who, in 
testimony of their gratitude, presented her with a silver cup, 
bearing the inscription, " The Archers to Queen Catherine." 




An English Lady practising with the Bow and ArTGW* 
(Early part of Nineteenth Century.) 

Her Majesty Queen Victoria faithfully observed the tradi- 
tions of her ancestors with respect to archery, and in her 
youth, and at the commencement of her reign, regularly 
practised with the long bow. 

If the kings and queens of England used this weapon 
with such wonderful ardour, we must look to more than 
mere personal taste to explain the reason, which was, no 



OTHER ENGLISH ARCHERS. 287 

doubt, their desire to encourage this taste among the people. 
The dynasty could not be indifferent to the value of this 
arm, the taste for which, among the English, was so well 
known that their skill in it was proverbial. 

The inhabitants of Wales surpassed all others in their 



English Archer of the Middle Ages. (From a MS. m the British MuseQB.) 

ability in the use of the bow. Giraldus Cambrensis, a 
writer of the 12th century, says that their arrows pierced 
oaken doors four fingers in thickness. He mentions also 
the case of a knight pinned to his saddle by two Welsh 
arrows, which went through his thighs. And this is not the 
only instance, as we shall show further on, of a man be- 
coming a centaur in spite of himself and being stuck by an 
arrow to his saddlebow. 



288 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

Every one has heard of the exploits of the archers who 
served in the English army. The French often felt and 
acknowledged their prowess — especially at Cressy, where 
the cross-bowmen employed by the French could not stand 
before the English archers. Indeed, a great misfortune 
befell them at the very commencement of the action ; the 
cords of their cross-bows, distended by the damp, were 




French Archer of the Middle Ages. 

rendered useless, while the long bows of the English did 
not appear to have suffered much from the same source, 
owing, perhaps, to their precautions, and their great care of 
their arms. 

We must not forget to mention the fire arrows discharged 
by the British archers, which spread conflagration as well as 
death wherever they went. 

If we drew a comparison between the archers of the 
middle ages and those of modern times, we should be 



OTHER ENGLISH ARCHERSL 



289 



struck with the vast superiority of the former, and be 
tempted to suspect that the historians have much exag- 
gerated their prowess. The ancient archers, according 
to contemporary reports, shot to distances which, in these 
times, seem fabulous, and with precision which nowadays 
we cannot understand. An Act was passed in the reign 




Fire Arrows. (From J. Smith's "Art of Gunnery." London, 2643.) 



of Henry VIII. commanding young men of twenty-one 
years of age who practised shooting at a target to do so 
at no distance less than 220 yards. Among archers of the 
present time such practice is quite unknown, for when we 
shoot at a target it is never at a greater distance than 80 or 
100 yards. 

Strutt observed, out of curiosity, shooting with the bow 
in the environs of London at the commencement of this 



290 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

century, and he confesses that he has often waited for 
hours without having seen the "gold," which forms the 
centre of the target, touched a single time. The thing 
happens, however, sometimes (he adds), but so rarely that 
it is to be attributed to chance rather than to the skill of 
the archer. He mentions, however, a fact which seems to 
prove that skill in shooting has not quite died out. In 
1795, or J 79^> the Toxopholite Society held a great meeting 
near Bedford-square, at which the Turkish ambassador in 
London was present, to take part in the games. It seemed 
to him that the butts were too short for shooting at long 
range, and he therefore shot over the enclosure, into the 
open country. Strutt says that he saw him discharge his 
arrows at a distance which was double the length of the 
butts, and that one of his shafts went quite 480 yards. 

The ancestors of Robin Hood, William of Cloudesley, 
and his companions, did not shoot with an equally long 
range ; but it must not be forgotten that they shot with 
precision against a fixed target, while the diplomatist in 
question shot at large. The bow of the Turkish ambas- 
sador has been preserved in the museum of the Toxophilite 
Society, where the curious may see it 



CHAPTER VL 

THE BOW IN THE EAST AND IN AMERICA. 

The Archers c: izz Grand Turk— Preca _::;-i arair-s: 7_— :~~ the Ia;k 
to die Sorereign — The Crossing of Rirers — Cannon-ball pierced 
by an Arrow— The Indians of Florida— Their Skill and Strength 

—Experience of :ne Spaniards — A Centaur. 

Other nations besides those we have mentioned excelled 
in the use of the bow, especially the peoples of the East 
The Grand Turk had among his Janissaries a corps of 
archers, consisting of 400 or 500 men, very dextercus in 
the use of the bow. They were called solachis, or left- 
handed men, because nearly cne half of them sac: the hcw 
in that fashion. This portion of die troop inarched always 
en :he rirh: 0: the Sultan. ~hhe their c:rcrades, :he rtuht- 
handed men, were placed on the left side, so that neither 
in shooting their arrows required to commit die incivility 
of turning their backs to his Highness, which would have 
teen ;he heiuht c: rawness. 

While crossing a river they no more thought of quitting 
the flanks of their lord's steed than they did when marching 
on the firm ground. As a reward for this kind of service 
they received a crown-piece when the water came up to 
their knees, two crowns when it reached to the waist, and 
three when they were covered to the neck. But it was only 
for the passage of the first river that they received this pay- 
ment, the others brought them nothing; so that in water as 
on land it was U p-anicr pas fid critic* 



292 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

Other soldiers of the Turkish army who made use of the 
bow could pierce cuirasses of the finest temper, and plates 
of copper four fingers thick, through and through. " I have 
seen,", says Blaise de Vigenere, "when the Turkish army 
came to Toulon under the command of Cairaddin Bassa, a 
certain Barbarossa, admiral of the Grand Solyman, piercing 
a cannon-ball with an arrow which he shot from his bow." 

The Orientals retained the use of the bow in the army a 
much longer time than the Western people. They em- 
ployed it till the end of the sixteenth century, and at the 
battle of Lepanto, in 157 1, the Turks knocked over with 
their arrows more Christians than the Christians with their 
fire-arms did Turks. 

Among the peoples who formed in those ages numerous 
and powerful tribes, the North-American Indians achieved 
wonders by means of the bow. At a later period they 
adopted the weapons introduced into their territory by the 
Europeans, and turned them with deadly effect against the 
latter; for the musket handled by marksmen such as one 
reads of in the novels of Fenimore Cooper was as effective 
as the bow had been in the hands of their ancestors. 

The Indians practised the use of the bow from their 
earliest youth, for scarcely could the infants walk before 
they began to imitate their fathers, and demanded bows and 
arrows. When refused them they manufactured them of a 
sort of cane, and with them amused themselves by hunting 
mice in the paternal wigwams. When there were no mice, 
they made game of flies, and having exhausted them they 
had the lizards to fall back upon, and for these they lay in 
wait sometimes for five or six hours with the patience and 
tenacity which characterise the savage. 

Such were the pursuits of the young Indians of Florida 



THE BOW IN THE EAST AND IN AMERICA. 293 

at the time, when, at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, the Spaniards penetrated into the country with the 
object of conquering it. As they advanced in age the 
Floridians continued to perfect themselves still further, 
shooting with a surprising strength. In one encounter, a 
very strong horse having been killed during the night by an 
arrow, the Spaniards had the curiosity to investigate in the 
morning the manner in which it had been struck. They 
found that the arrow had entered by the breast, had pierced 
the heart, and was stopped by the bowels. On another 
occasion one of the officers of the Spanish army was struck 
by an arrow on the right side, and it would have " done 
for " him had it not turned aside, for it cut through his buff 
jacket and coat of mail. 

The sight of this perfectly-tempered suit of mail, which 
had cost 150 ducats, completely pierced by an arrow, gave 
the Spanish major much to reflect upon. He began from 
that day to be less confident of the use of his jackets of 
iron and steel. In order to know still better upon what to 
depend, the officers released one of their prisoners, placed 
in his hand a bow and arrow, and ordered him to shoot at 
the strongest coat of mail they had, which they set up at 
the distance of 150 paces, and which was covered thickly 
with reeds. The Indian, in order to shoot with more force, 
stretched and shook his arms, and pulled his fingers. The 
arrow was delivered with such power that it pierced the 
reeds and the armour, and would certainly have killed any 
one that might have been inside the mail. They doubled 
the covering of reeds, and the archer again shot and pierced 
the three substances ; but as the arrow did not go deep, he 
claimed another trial, saying that he was willing to lose his 
life if he did not shoot with as much effect as on the first 



294 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

occasion. The Spaniards, however, now knew all they 
wished to know, and did not allow him another chance to 
show his skill. So disgusted were they with the result, that 
afterwards they spoke of their armour in terms of reproach, 
as " Holland sheeting. " They had to protect themselves as 
well as they could, but this was not all, they must protect 
their horses, which were of great service, and could not 
be replaced in Florida, where the horse was then unknown. 
They therefore manufactured coats of a coarse kind of cloth, 
four fingers thick, with which they covered the breast and 
croup of their animals, and which protected them from the 
terrible flights of shafts discharged by the natives. 

This ingenious precaution had not yet been adopted, 
when one day, as the Spaniards were crossing a river, an 
Indian, concealed behind the brushwood, shot one of the 
officers. The arrow pierced the coat of mail, passed 
through the right thigh, broke the croup of the saddle, 
and penetrated into the side of the horse, which, maddened 
by its wound, leapt out of the water, and, bounding across 
the plain, endeavoured to shake itself free of the weapon 
and of its rider. Some soldiers ran to his assistance, and 
soon perceived that the man was, so to speak, riveted to 
the horse by the arrow, so terrible had been its force. The 
new centaur was conducted to head-quarters, and his com- 
panions, lifting him gently, cut the arrow between the thigh 
and the saddle. The missile was only a piece of reed 
pointed with a bit of cane, so at least says Garcilaso di 
Vega ; and the Spaniards asked with astonishment how so 
light a shaft could have pierced so many obstacles. 

A long time after this period of the Spanish invasion 
the skill of the Indians of Florida was still famous, and not 
without reason. They met, sometimes ten in number, each 



THE BOW IN THE EAST AND IN AMERICA. 295 

furnished with a bow and quiver full of arrows, and forming 
a circle, in the midst of which one threw up an ear of maize, 
made it the common target. The evidence of their ability- 
was their having peeled the ear of all the grains with their 
arrows before it again reached the ground. One sometimes 
saw the ear suspended in the air for a considerable time, 
maintained, as it were, aloft by the arrows which pierced 
it, and of which the last fell with the last grain. 



CHAPTER VII. 

WILLIAM TELL AND THE LEGEND OF THE APPLE. 

The Cross-bow — Story of William Tell — Silence of the Historians of 
the Time— The Bailiff Gessler a Myth— Voltaire's mot-— The Story 
of the Apple called in question by a Swiss — Pamphlet burned by 
the Hangman — Hart, the Tradition of Danish origin — Palnatoke 
accomplishes Tell's Feat in the Sixteenth Century — Narrative of 
the Scandinavian Historian — Critical Examination of the Legend 
— A Curious Dictum — Did Tell ever exist? — Cloudesley also 
Shoots at the Head of his Child — Two Cross-Bow Shots. 

The cross-bow as well as the long-bow has had its day of 
glory and of triumph. The reader will at once recall the 
name of William Tell. Although his adventure is now 
classical and known to all, it is necessary to revert to it 
for a moment, as well as to the history of him who is 
the hero of it. 

Tell was a poor peasant who was born at Biirglen in Uri, 
and lived at Altorf, at the end of the thirteenth and beginning 
of the fourteenth centuries. Like others of his fellow citizens, 
he declined to bow to the despotic authority of a certain Aus- 
trian bailiff named Gessler. The latter had caused a pole to 
be stuck up in the market place in the middle of the public 
square of Altorf, and had his hat placed upon it. To this 
ridiculous symbol of power he demanded that all should bow. 
Tell having refused his homage, was condemned by Gessler 
to the cruel alternative of having to shoot at and strike 
an apple placed upon his child's head, or of suffering death 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE. 297 

in the event of his skill in archery being unequal to the feat. 
Tell was so fortunate as to be successful, but he was neverthe- 
less detained by Gessler, who was determined to carry him a 
prisoner to his castle of Kussnach, on the Lake of the Four 
Cantons. During the voyage thither such a tempest arose, 
that the bailiff in terror undid the bonds of his captive, who 
now took the helm and steered the bark to. the shore. But 
as soon as he had reached it, Tell threw himself from the 
boat, and, pushing it out again into the lake, took to flight. 
He lay in ambush in a road through which Gessler had to 
pass on his way to Kussnach, and there killed the bailiff 
with a bolt from his famed cross-bow. Such is the history 
of the famous Swiss hero. It is said that he took part in 
the revolution begun in 1307 by Werner Stauffacher, 
(Schwytz), Walter Fiirst (Uri), and Arnold Melchthal 
(Unterwalden), for the delivery of the Swiss cantons from 
the Austrian yoke. It is believed also that he fought at 
Morgarten, the battle which in 13 15 consolidated the 
independence of the country, and that he perished in 
1354 in an inundation at Burglen. 

The Swiss recognise and honour Tell as their principal 
hero, and to glorify his actions and perpetuate his memory 
fetes have been instituted, medals struck, and monuments 
consecrated. Who that has travelled in Switzerland has not 
marked the veneration of the people for the memory of 
William Tell? Who has not seen the famous chapel 
bearing his name, and the bank on which he sprang from 
Gessler's bark, and which is to this day named "Tell's 
Leap?" Here is the fountain where the father stood and 
shot his arrow; the tower there stands where once grew 
the linden tree under which the brave child was placed by 
order of Gessler. But are these monuments authentic? — 



298 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

and here another question arises — is the story of the hero 
true in all its parts? Do not certain details appear to 
belong to the world of fiction ? 

There are some authorities who have doubted Tell's 
story ; there are even some who have denied his existence, 
as well as that of the bailiff Gessler. What is certain is 
that contemporary Swiss chronicles— those of Justinger of 
Berne and Jean of Wintherthur — never speak of these feats, 
and do not even mention the name of William Tell. Was 
it from ignorance or forgetfulness that they thus omit to 
mention him ? Historians so conscientious could not have 
fallen into the double fault Is it not the case then that 
certain feats ascribed to Tell had not in his own day that 
notoriety which they have since acquired in the imagination 
of the people ? 

The same silence with regard to Tell is preserved by 
foreign contemporaneous chroniclers. It is only at a much 
later period that his name for the first time appears, and the 
story of his life, which gradually develops into a series of 
interesting and pathetic details, is recorded. Why should 
Justinger and Jean of Wintherthur, the two contemporaries 
of Tell, be silent about what so intimately concerned them ? 
and why should the historians who wrote a century after the 
event — Melchior Russ, Petermann Etterlin, Stumpf, Egidius 
Tschudi — be so prodigal of details of which the earlier 
historians were entirely ignorant. 

Let it be noted also that these chroniclers, like those 
who come after them and have copied them, do not agree 
as to the name of the bailiff, giving it sometimes as Grissler, 
sometimes as Gryssler, most frequently, it is true, as Gessler. 
What appears almost demonstrated at the present day, is 
that there never existed in the country an Austrian bailiff 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE. 299 

of that name. Contemporaneous and authentic documents 
prove that in 1302 a certain Eppe was styled bailiff of 
Kiissnach, and that in 13 14 the office remained in the 
same family. After their extinction the title passed to 
Walter de Tottikon, and by his daughter Jeanne to her 
husband Heinrich de Hunwill. Down to 1402 it was never 
Aeld by a Gessler, or by any one bearing a name at all like 
that The historians also do not agree as to the date of 
the event, some giving none, others, more daring, setting it 
down as 1296, 1313, 1314, or 1307, the last being that 
which is now generally adopted. 

Voltaire, who did not much believe in traditions, says 
in his " Annales de 1' Empire" : — " It must be confessed that 
the history of the apple is bien suspect, and that all the 
details which accompany it are not less so." This is 
exactly what a Swiss, writing under the name of Freuden- 
berger, had the hardihood to desire to demonstrate in the 
last century in a pamphlet entitled " William Tell, a Danish 
Fable," which appeared in 1760. This work, the production 
of a man who, as has been said, " was either very rash or 
very enlightened," raised such a tempest of popular indig- 
nation that at last it was suppressed in all the cantons, 
and in that of Uri especially it was burned by the hands 
of the hangman. We need not enter into an examination 
of this pamphlet, but one point interests us — the story of 
an apple placed on the head of a child being pierced by 
an arrow. 

" I defy every cross-bowman, however expert, to do such 
a thing," says Freudenberger, who is evidently carried away 
by his feelings, and allows himself to forget his premises. 
What does he wish to prove ? That the history of William 
Tell, and especially the apple, is a fable borrowed from the, 



300 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL* 

Danish. But why deny in regard to a Swiss archer an 
achievement which you admit in the case of a Danish one 
named Toke or Toko, who lived in the tenth century, and 
of whom Saxo Grammaticus speaks in his chronicle ? Like 
Tell, Toke was condemned — though by a King Harold, not 
a bailiff- — in 965, to hit an apple placed on the head of one 
of his children. Like Tell, too, he had concealed one or 
two arrows to use against him who compelled him to the 
awful act ; and, like Tell once more, he killed the tyrant as 
soon as an opportunity presented itself. 

Toke appears to be the same personage as the famous 
Scandinavian chief Palnatoke, whose exploits are recorded 
in the sagas of the North, and who was always at war with 
the neighbouring petty kings. Palnatoke had founded a 
celebrated association in the isle of Wollin, the head-quarters 
of which was the fortress of Jomsborg. All who served under 
him considered themselves brothers, and bound themselves 
to avenge as a body the injuries inflicted on any one of them, 
and to divide their booty in common among them. The 
laws of the fraternity were extremely rigorous ; no woman, 
for example, being allowed to enter the fortress. Palnatoke 
died, it is said, in the isle of Fionie, the inhabitants of 
which still preserve his memory, and assert that his spirit 
sometimes appears among them. 

Saxo Grammaticus does not speak of Palnatoke the 
pirate, but only of Toke or Toko the archer. There is, 
however, as already mentioned, ground for believing that 
these are one and the same personage. To Toke is attributed 
the adventure of the apple which has rendered the name of 
Tell so famous. It is necessary, in order that the reader 
may judge with knowledge, to place before him the narrative 
of the Scandinavian historian. 



\ 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE, 30I 

€t A certain Toke, in the service of King Harold, had 
made many enemies among his companions in arms because 
of his zeal and his great abilities. One day, in the middle 
of a feast, and after copious libations, he boasted that his 
skill in shooting with the bow was so great that he could 
strike an apple, however small, placed on a stick at a 
certain distance. The words, carried by envious tongues, 
came to the ears of the king, who wickedly resolved to test 
the confidence which the father had in his powers. He 
ordered Toke to make his son take the place of the stick to 
which he had referred, and put an apple on his head. Should 
he fail to strike the apple, he was to forfeit his life for his 
imprudent boasting. He was thus placed in the position 
of having to do more than he had promised ; for his idle 
words were only the result of his drunkenness, of which his 
enemies had taken advantage to ruin him. Their treachery, 
however, was brought to nought, for the skill which he was 
about to display confirmed his boasting, however rash. 
Their spite could not destroy the confidence he had in his 
ability ; and the more difficult was the proof to which it was 
put, the more honourable was his success. 

"Toke encouraged his son by a few quiet words. 
'Take care,' said he, ' to keep erect. Do not bow the head; 
be not afraid of the sound of the arrow, for the slightest 
movement is enough to disturb the calculations of the best 
marksman.' Finally, in order to remove the slightest cause 
of fear, he ordered him to turn his head that he might not 
see the approach of the arrow. Having afterwards taken 
three shafts from his quiver, he placed one in his bow, took 
his aim, and pierced the apple. 

"If it had been his misfortune to shoot his son, he 
would have paid with his own life for the involuntary crime — 



302 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

his want of skill would have inflicted a double blow. I do 
not know which is worthy of most admiration — the courage 
of the father or the coolness of the boy. The one, by his 
ability as an archer saved himself from taking the life of his 
own son ; the other, by his presence of mind, saved his own 
life and that of a beloved father. The young man gave 
confidence to the old one ; for the former awaited the result 
of the arrow with calmness equal to the address of the 
latter in shooting it. 

" Harold subsequently asked him for what reason he had 
taken several arrows from his quiver, having but only one 
chance to shoot. ' In order/ replied Toke, ? to avenge with 
the others the error of the first, if the shot had failed, 
and to punish the guilty for the fall of the innocent.' Some 
time afterwards the king, while far in the forest, fell under 
an avenging shaft from Toke's bow, and soon expired of the 
wound." 

As one sees, the similarity of the two stories is very 
striking; but is it the result of chance, or can it be ac- 
counted for ? It might of course, strictly, well enough be 
that the same feat was performed in two different countries, 
at an interval of several centuries. I do not examine here 
the question as to whether a father ever could lend himself 
to such a caprice, or whether such a caprice ever entered the 
head of even a tyrant. But it maybe that the story of Tell's 
adventure is only a fable founded on that of Palnatoke, and 
the silence of contemporary historians authorises the belief. 
That the Scandinavian legend should be known in Switzer- 
land is not at all surprising, if the country has received 
— as it is asserted — colonists from Sweden. 

The matter is in a state of chaos, out of which it is 
difficult enough to evolve fact ; but certain critics have been 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE. 303 

able to make the confusion worse confounded by accusing 
Saxo Grammaticus of plagiarism. " Of plagiarism," we 
might well reply, "how can that be, seeing that he died 
before William Tell was born? he was not heard of for 
several centuries afterwards." The reproach, however, is 
not cast on Saxo Grammaticus, but on the editors of his 
posthumous work, who have had no scruple in incorporating 
with the history published in his name a host of anecdotes 
of foreign origin. In this case the story of William Tell 
would have found a piace in the collection of Saxo Gram- 
maticus during the course of the fourteenth or even of the 
fifteenth century, and, in fact, the Danish work was printed 
for the first time in 15 14. 

We have not, however, to enter into this critical dis- 
cussion, but there is a point to which we must draw atten- 
tion, and which is of great importance as bearing on the 
subject There existed formerly among the populations of 
the North a wide-spread saying expressive of the skill of 
an archer or cross-bowman — " He is so sure a marksman, 
that he could strike an apple on the head of his child? The 
question would be much simplified, and the problem solved, 
if we could trace the source of this proverb. But what is its 
origin ? What primitive adventure gave birth to this popular 
saying, which perhaps was in existence before Palnatoke him- 
self? As to William Tell, it seems to us difficult, almost 
impossible, to deny his existence. That it was doubted at a 
date soon after the time when he is said to have lived — namely, 
in 1388, that is to say, only thirty years after his death — is 
shown by the fact that it was necessary to prove his exis- 
tence by a public document. On that occasion 114 persons 
came to attest that they had known William Tell. This 
number is considerable, and incredulity must have been 



304 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

very strong even then when so many had to be put into 
the witness-box. Two or three persons might deceive 
themselves, but 114 could not all be "taken in" at the 
same time. 

Ludwig Hausser, to whom we are much indebted, comes, 
in his " Legend of William Tell " (Heidelberg, 1840), to the 
conclusion that Tell actually lived, but he does not accord 
to him that historic importance which is ordinarily ascribed 
to him. If it is true that he exercised such an influence 
upon his country, how was it that he played no part in the 
events which accompanied and followed the revolution of 
1307 ? Why did he not take part in the oath of Griitli? 
Was he among the thirty citizens who joined the three 
chiefs on that occasion ? Was he with Walter Fiirst, whose 
daughter, it is said, he married? Was he present at the 
battle of Morgarten? There is no proof. But if he was 
witness of those great events, he was lost in the multitude 
— an obscure soldier fighting for a great cause. He was 
not among those whose names were in the mouths of all ; 
nothing brought him prominently before the public. How 
then has he acquired such celebrity as he enjoys? The 
reason is that the Swiss have symbolised, under a single 
name, the glorious resistance to tyranny made by the whole 
people. As soon as the country had been delivered from 
its oppressors, as soon as it had achieved its indepen- 
dence, and given the baptism of glory to the name of 
Switzerland, which it adopted, the want of a history and of 
beginnings was felt, and the past was carefully searched for 
everything that was connected with the revolution of 1307. 
William Tell, it is evident, had done something bold, some- 
thing which his countrymen had not yet dared to do. What 
that deed was his contemporaries do not state ; they do not 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE. 305 

even give the name of the now famous mountaineer. It is 
probable that he declined to recognise the authority of the 
Austrian bailiffs, and that he showed them open resistance ; 
perhaps, indeed, he even refused to bow to a hat placed od 
a stick. And what a despotism must it have been, when 
the admiration of these unfortunate peasants was so much 
excited by an act so perfectly natural ! 

According to the same critic, some parts of Tell's his- 
tory hardly admit of serious consideration. He refused 
rightly to obey the order of Gessler, and passed the hat 
with fierce and unbending look. But this same Gessler 
ordered him to shoot an apple from the head of his son, 
and he submitted ! Was it not imperatively his duty to 
disobey in this also? It really, however, matters little 
whether the life of Tell belongs to history or to legend. 
The decision of the question cannot rob the early Swiss 
of their patriotism, or diminish the heroism of those who 
— whoever they may be, obscure or known — took part 
in the great revolution, and delivered their country from 
an odious yoke. That is a glory which no one thinks 
of doubting, and of which no one would wish to despoil 
them. 

But to return to the story of the apple. We have seen 
that this feat of skill was not performed for the first time by 
Tell. Palnatoke had dared to do it as early as the tenth 
century, and there was, moreover, among the people, a 
common saying directly referring to it. But this is not all. 
Palnatoke had an imitator before William Tell, and that was 
William of Cloudesley, of whom we have spoken above. 
The ballad which bears his name, and of which we have 
quoted certain stanzas, does not finish with the hero splitting 
a hazel wand with an arrow at 400 paces. It goes on to 

T 



306 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

describe the English archer advancing to the king, and 
saying : — 

u * I have a son is seven yere old, 
He is to me full deare ; 
I wyll hym tye to a stake, 
All shall se that be here ; 

' And lay an apple upon hys head, 

And go syxe score hym fro, 
And I mye selfe with a brode ar6w 
Shall cleve the apple in two.' 

'Now haste the then/ sayd the kyn^ 

* By hym that dyed on a tre, 
But if thou do not as thou hest sayde^ 
Hanged shalt thou be. 

•And thou touche his head or gowne 

In syght that men may se, 
By all the sayntes that be in heaven, 
I shall hang you all thre. ' 

• That I have promised,' said William, 

* That I wyll never forsake,' 
And there even before the kynge 

In the earth he drove a stake, 

And bound thereto his eldest sonne, 

And bad hym stand styll thereat, 
And turned the childe's face him fro, 

Because he should not start 

An apple upon his head he set^ 

And then his bow he bent ; 
Syxe score paces they were meaten, 

And thether Cloudesle went 

Then he drew out a fayre brode arrowy 

Hys bowe was great and longe ; 
He set that arrowe in his bowe, 

That was both styffe and stronger 



WILLIAM TELL AND THE APPLE. 307 

And Cloudesle cleft the apple in two, 

His sonne lie did not nee ; 
• Over Gods forbode,' sayde the kinge, 

That thou shold shote at me. ' " 

Switzerland was not the only country that could, during 
the middle ages, boast of good qross-bowmen. France had 
her own also, and the army numbered in its ranks this kind 
of fighters, as formerly it had been supplemented by archers. 
Francis I. was the last king who made use of both. At the 
battle of Marignan (15 15) a body of 200 mounted cross- 
bowmen accomplished wonders. This was, however, the 
last occasion on which they were employed to any extent, 
and henceforward, though there were men skilful in the use 
of the arm, they were few. 

At the battle of Bicoque, between the French and the 
Imperialists (1522), a Spanish captain, having opened his 
helmet to breathe, Jean de Cordonne, the only cross- 
bowman then in the French army, discharged his arrow at 
him with such force that the stroke killed him at once. 
Some years later, at the siege of Turin, the only cross- 
bowman in the troops — was it Cordonne again? — put 
hors de combat in five or six skirmishes more of the enemy's 
men than the most clever arquebusiers disposed of during 
the whole siege. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BOW IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The Bow again in Favour — The Five Hundred Companies of France 
— Fete in 1854 — Revival of Archery in England — Fishing with 
Arrows — The Yurucares of Bolivia — The Fish in the Air— The 
Kitsch Negroes. 

There are certain institutions that persist in living, and the 
tenacity of existence of some inventions, in spite of the 
changes of time and manners, is remarkable. Others, 
more useful, more suitable to the spirit of the age and to 
the altered circumstances, have taken their place, the world 
has adopted them, and fashion has enforced their use. 
But it does not matter ; old things, like old men, are un- 
willing to lapse into oblivion. 

Among the inventions of modern times none has been 
the subject of so many improvements as the musket, and 
the onward march once commenced has not stopped — the 
gun is still being perfected every day. In spite, however, 
of the superiority of the new over the old weapons — in spite 
of the success of the needle-gun, the Chassepot, and the 
Martini-Henry — there still exist men who persist in using 
bows and arrows. 

Reference is not here made to those Ravage tribes, flat 
of nose and weak in intelligence, who, not having the means 
of procuring other weapons, are compelled to content them- 
selves with those which they received from their fathers, and 
which they in their turn will transmit to their children. Look 



THE BOW IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 309 

at what happens among ourselves in the middle of the nine- 
teenth century. It is true the bow is not used as a military 
arm, but in the opinion of some that is all that is wanting ! 
It would be a fine sight, indeed, to see our volunteers 
armed with the bow and quiver ! But patience, that time 
may come perhaps ! 

In France, in order to advocate the revival of archery, 
a number of well-meaning enthusiasts published a paper 
called "U Archer Frangais," a journal for bowmen, which 
was published in 1857, in which certain men, sincere and 
worthy enough, sought to take us back far beyond the 
heroic ages of Greece — even to fabulous times. The results 
obtained were of a nature to encourage their efforts, for 
already Paris contains a certain number of societies, of which 
one bears the name of" The Imperial Company of Archers" 
(Compagnie Imperiale des Tireurs d'Arc), while there are over 
five hundred clubs scattered throughout the country. For- 
merly, the best archers of the French armies came from 
Picardy and Artois, and it is still in these provinces that 
this sport is held in the highest esteem. The Seine appears 
to be the boundary of the land of the bow. 

The importance of this movement in favour of the 
revival of archery is proved by the congress which took 
place at the town of Noyon in 1854, when a hundred and 
one companies of archers assembled to compete for the 
prizes offered. Each band marched with its banner and its 
special uniform. The Swiss archers came in the costume 
of William Tell; the good men of Amiens were there, as 
well as cross-bowmen, attired in the costume of the time of 
Louis XI., with plumes partly deep and partly light green. 
It would be difficult to tell the exact number of arrows dis- 
charged on this occasion — some say 22,000. The number 



3IO WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

cannot be guaranteed, but that is not surprising, seeing that 
the shooting lasted for six weeks. 

In England a revival of the same kind also took place, 
and the movement was more pronounced, since liberty of 
association is more complete than in France, and the bow 
was for a long time the national arm. There is a very con- 
siderable number of clubs of archers, organised upon an 
excellent footing, in the practice of holding meetings and 
regularly practising. 

Blaine observes that the formation of the Toxopholite 
Society was the first ostensible revival of the art. It has 
been said that Sir Ashton Lever was principally instrumental 
in organising this association. It is, however, well known 
that it was first established in 1781 at Leicester House 
(then standing in Leicester Fields), at the time Sir Ashton 
Lever showed his museum there, and the Society then, and 
for many years afterwards, held their meetings in Bloomsbury 
Fields, behind the spot where Gower Street now stands. 
About twenty-five years afterwards they removed their 
meetings or " target days " to Highbury Barn, and from 
thence to Bayswater. Some years ago, the Woodmen of 
Arden, the Toxophilites, and the Society of Archers, were 
incorporated into one body. Most counties have now their 
archery meetings, which are generally held between the 
close of the hunting and the beginning of the shooting 
seasons. The Royal Company of Archers of Scotland 
are said to owe their origin to the commissioners who were 
originally appointed by James I. to superintend and regu- 
late the exercise of archery throughout the kingdom. At 
present they form a numerous and respectable body. The 
uniform of the company is tartan, lined with white and 
trimmed with green and white fringes ; a white sash with 



THE BOW IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 31I 

green tassels, and a blue bonnet with St. Andrew's feather 
and cross. They have also two standards, on one of which 
is inscribed, Nemo me impune lacessit, on the other, Duke 
pro p atria moru 

As to the modern practice of English archery, some idea 
of it may be formed from the following account of that of the 
body just referred to, who, according to the writer quoted 
by Blaine, realise most forcibly whatever legendary and 
classical impressions we possess concerning ancient bowmen, 
as well by their grotesque accoutrements and ancient dress 
as by the dexterity they exhibit in their achievements. " It 
is," he observes, " comparatively a very easy matter to hit 
a stationary mark with a shot from* a musket, but let any 
man take in his hand a rifle, and shoot with a single ball 
at marks of the dimensions I am about to specify, and he 
will find it very difficult to outdo the feats of Scottish archers. 
The point-blank practice of the body-guard is one hundred 
feet at a circle four inches in diameter. Shooting three 
arrows, I have seen an archer place the whole in the mark 
in succession, and have been told that eight arrows out of 
ten have been shot into this space at the distance. An 
archer fresh and in good practice is generally within two 
inches of the mark with all his arrows. In the field or at 
roving shooting the distances are one hundred and eighty 
and two hundred yards, and the mark thirty inches square. 
The shooting at these distances being at an elevation, it is 
surprising how near to the mark the arrows fall. It is not 
deemed good practice if they are not placed within a bow 
length or six feet of the centre of the mark. A bow-length 
is cut out by half a bow ; half a bow by a foot, when the 
arrow hits the foot of the target ; a foot by a thumb when 
it lights between the legs of the target ; a thumb by a clout, 



312 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILI* 

when the arrow sticks in or passes through the target ; and 
clouts are preferable according to their nearness to the 
centre or mark. A shaft in the clout at two hundred yards 
is here a very common occurrence, and certainly must be 
considered a beautiful display of skill. There is another 
field practice corresponding to that generally used with us 
in England, but here employed only by beginners; it is one 
hundred yards with a circular mark four feet in diameter. 
Here no arrow counts that is not in the target, but at the 
roving distances all within three bows are reckoned, and 
knowing all the niceties and difficulties that must be at- 
tended to, you would be as much surprised and pleased 
as I have been to see the accuracy of Scottish archers." 

Beside the gentlemen of the United Kingdom shoot- 
ing with bow and arrow the poor savages of Africa and 
America cut a sad figure with their clumsy weapons. 
The English gentlemen archers pursue their sport under 
the best conditions. Nevertheless, the English amateur 
would stand but a poor chance in competing with his 
wild dark-skinned confrere, for what matters the quality of 
such an instrument if the workman be but skilful? And 
those inhabitants of the savannah and the forest have end- 
less opportunities of cultivating their talents. They do not 
content themselves with fighting and the chase ; they even 
fish with the arrow. 

The Yurucares of Bolivia, South America, launch upon 
the water a raft made of poles lashed together. On this 
frail support they go forth to fish, armed with their bows 
and with arrows twelve feet long. When they strike the 
fish, the length of their arrows enables them to draw it 
to them easily. An American traveller, Mr. Gibbon, often 
observed them at this' employment — one standing in the 




FISHING WITH THE JAVELIN. 



THE BOW IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 315 

middle of the raft, and the other two, one at each end, so 
that the passing fish could not escape the three. When 
one missed, which happened very seldom, he was hooked 
by his companions. 

In the north of the same hemisphere the Indians practise 
this mode of fishing, but mingle amusement with their 
labour by exercising their skill as much as possible. They 
send their arrows through the air almost vertically, and 
calculate so accurately their flight and the speed of the fish 
in the water, that the dart, when it suddenly comes down, 
strikes into and kills the prey. This kind of fishing has, 
however, its disadvantages, and even the most skilful hunter 
is often balked by the wounded fish sinking into the depths, 
carrying the arrow with it 

Some of the African tribes pursue another system. The 
Kitsch negroes, whom the German traveller, William de 
Harnier, became acquainted with when exploring the upper 
course of the Nile, catch their fish, not by shooting them 
with arrows, but by spearing them with javelins, to the butt- 
end of which a long cord is attached ; the end of this cord 
the fisher holds in his left hand. Their boats are canoes, 
long and narrow, formed out of the trunks of trees. Some- 
times the whole inhabitants of a Kitsch sheriba (village) 
combine, and fish together in common. They choose a 
favourable place, generally a reach in the arm of the Nile, 
at the extremities of which they construct palisades. The 
flotilla is then put in motion ; each skiff carries two men, of 
whom one rows in the stern while the other in the bow 
brandishes his slender lance, which he darts at every fish 
that comes in sight, and which he pulls back by means of 
the cord which is attached to it, 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MUSKET AND PISTOL. 

Hunting by Torchlight in the Forests of America — The Marksmen of 
Kentucky — Snuffing and Blowing Out a Candle — Driving in Nails 
— Killing Squirrels by Ricochet — Feats of Skill with the Pistol— 
A Prince of the Caucasus — Pieces of Silver Pierced in the Air by 
Bullets — M. d'Houdinot — His Rencontre upon the Sea-shore — 
Shooting a cloche-pied. 

When missile arms had been replaced by percussion arms, 
a change which produced a revolution in the art of war, and 
consequently in the relative situations of countries \ when 
the hand-cannon had succeeded the cross-bow, which itself 
had succeeded the bow, which again had succeeded the 
sling, and this last had succceeded the primitive art of 
throwing stones with the hand; when the gun had been 
invented, and it had given birth to the carabine and pistol, 
these arms were made to accomplish marvels — feats of skill 
such as would have rendered jealous the marksmen of any 
time, poor men who had only shapeless and imperfect instru- 
ments at their disposal. 

Let not the reader expect a faithful and chronological 
list of the surprising achievements executed by the aid of 
these " fire-tubes," The province of hunting alone is an in- 
exhaustible mine of the exploits of men who, still better 
than the Arabs, know how to make powder speak. Besides, 
in collections of sporting anecdotes the work has been so 
thoroughly and so frequently done that it would be inex- 



THE MUSKET AND PISTOL. 317 

pedient to trouble the reader with tales with which probably 
he is already familiar. One exception demands our atten- 
tion, that strange kind of hunting which is practised in our 
days in the forests of Kentucky, North America. 

The Kentuckians are intrepid sportsmen, and one can 
hardly meet a man there who has not his carbine on his 
shoulder from the time when he is able to carry it to the end 
of his career. Often, after having followed the deer all day 
long, the Kenluckian returns to his house, and after his 
dinner and a little repose, sets out again a 4 " '.he fall of night 
to hunt by torch-light, or, as it is called, by forest-light. He 
first gathers a large quantity of fir-cones, his son or his 
servant who accompanies him carries an old frying-pan, and, 
thus equipped, they set out on horseback, xiiey penetrate 
into the interior of the wood, and when they arrive at a 
favourable spot they light the resinous cones with a flint 
and steel, and the flame blazes up and flickers in the pan. 
The forest then assumes the strangest and most fantastic 
colours. The nearest objects are lit up by the glow of 
flames, while the depths of the wood remain shrouded in the 
most profound darkness. The hunter advances, and soon 
sees glittering before him two luminous points, the eyes of 
a deer or a wolf, which reflect the light thrown upon them 
with great brilliancy. The animal, astonished at this strange 
light, springs up at once in the darkness, and pauses petrified. 
The stranger, unaccustomed to the habits of the backwoods 
and the adventurous life of the New World, cannot help 
feeling a certain shock at beholding these two eyes shining 
in the darkness, but the Kentuckian is not sentimental, and 
is, besides, accustomed to the spectacle. Without making 
the slightest noise he sends his bullet into the animal, what- 
ever it may be, that stands before him. Sometimes it turns 



3l3 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

out to be a wolf, at another a poor cow, or it may be a 
strayed horse, that falls under the undiscriminating lead of 
the hunter. The latter continues his wild course, like the 
hunter of the German ballads, and when the sport has been 
good, he returns with perhaps a dozen deer. 

The inhabitants of Kentucky practise another kind of 
nocturnal sport, in which, however, they have no danger to 
run, and no fatigue to fear. Sometimes, in the evening, in 
approaching a village or an encampment, you hear firing, 
which is caused by the young men amusing themselves by 
" snuffing the candle." On the outskirts of a wood burns a 
light, which produces such a singular effect that one would 
believe it to be a sacrifice offered by pagans to the goddess 
of the night. A dozen tall strong young fellows, armed with 
carbines, are ranged at a distance of fifty paces from it; 
near the target a man, standing watching, has charge of 
the candle, it being his business to re-light it when it is 
snuffed out, to replace it when it is broken in two, and in 
general to attend to the results. There are among the 
Kentuckians many marksmen who can snuff the candle 
without extinguishing it ; there are some, of course, less 
expert, who strike neither the wick nor the flame. The 
former are encouraged by loud hurrahs, the latter saluted 
with equally loud shouts of laughter. Audubon says that 
he has seen one particularly skilful marksman, who, in six 
shots, three times snuffed the candle, and as to the others, 
either extinguished it or cut it immediately below the flame. 

But these are not the only games of skill practised by 
the young men of Kentucky, another being that which they 
call "driving the nail." It is in open day, not at night or in 
the evening, that this sport is carried on. The mark, which 
is erected at a distance of fifty paces, consists of a target 




HUNTING BY TORCHLIGHT IN KENTUCKY. 



THE MUSKET AND PISTOL. 32 1 

fixed in the earth, in the centre of which a nail of the 
required size is driven. The marksmen advance each in 
their turn, place a bullet in the palm of their hand, and 
cover it with a sprinkling of powder sufficient to carry it a 
hundred paces. To strike near the nail proves only very 
ordinary skill, to strike it and bend it is considered better, 
but only he who strikes it fair upon the head and drives it 
home passes for a really good shot. It is not uncommon to 
see a fine marksman perform this feat upon three nails in suc- 
cession ; and to have two nails for every half-dozen individuals 
i.s quite common. The competition continues to the exclu- 
sion of those who have not struck the nail on the head, and 
after every round those who have been successful begin 
again ; at the close the number is gradually reduced to two, 
who contend for the honour of the championship of the 
society. 

But the most extraordinary feat is that which Audubon 
saw done by one of these hardy pioneers, Daniel Boon, one 
of the first who explored the vast plains of Kentucky. He 
states that ne and his companion went on and passed along 
the rocks which border the River Kentucky, when after a 
time they came upon a flat platform covered with willow and 
oak trees. As the acorns had already fallen, they saw the 
squirrels gambolling upon every branch before them. His 
companion, a tall robust man of athletic form, clad only in 
the rough blouse of the hunter, and with his feet cased in 
mocassins, carried a long and heavy carabine, which he 
said, as he charged it, had never yet failed him, and which 
certainly did not fail him in this instance, when he took a 
pride in showing him what he could do. The barrel was 
cleaned, the powder weighed, the ball duly wrapped in a 
piece of cloth, and the charge rammed home with a white 

u 



322 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

willow wand. The squirrels were so numerous that there 
was no need for running after them. Without moving, Boon 
aimed at one of these animals, which having seen them had 
hid itself behind a branch at the distance of about fifty 
paces, and he asked Audubon to watch well the spot the ball 
would strike. He, having slowly raised his arm, fired, and 
the report resounded through the wood and the mountains. 
Just under the squirrel the ball had struck the bark, which, 
flying up, killed the animal, and sent it whirling in the air as 
if it had been blown up by the explosion of a mine. Audu- 
bon adds that he subsequently saw several marksmen per- 
form the feat, which is called raising the bark under the 
squirrels. 

Such is, indeed, the love of shooting among the Ken- 
tuckians, and the skill they have acquired, that when they 
have no other mark they take a piece of bark, cut it into 
the form of a target, and having, with a little water or saliva, 
placed in the centre a pinch of dust, moistened, and made to 
look like the eye of a buffalo, they riddle it till powder and 
ball are exhausted. 

Among the higher order of sportsmen in England, and 
after them among the commonalty, pigeon-shooting has 
long been a very popular sport, and during the summer 
season the crack of the gun is heard at many a ground in 
London and the provinces. Clubs of gentlemen are formed, 
who compete for prizes at regular intervals, either in 
ordinary matches or in handicaps, and the prizes subscribed 
for are frequently of great value. At the Red House and 
Hurlingham Park, in London, shooting proceeds every Satur- 
day during the season, and the contests are witnessed with 
great interest by large companies of the wealthiest and most 
fashionable members of society. The Prince of Wales is a 



THE MUSKET AND PISTOL 323 

frequent competitor, and the lists of members include the 
most aristocratic of our sportsmen. At certain periods 
international matches are held, in which, besides the best 
shots on this side of the water, fine marksmen from France 
and the Continent always take part. These competitions 
are generally attended with a large amount of betting on 
every shot, and considerable sums of money are continually 
changing hands on the results. The sport, however, is not 
confined to the wealthier class, for in England, all over the 
country, there are numerous grounds, attached, for the most 
part, to public-houses, where pigeon-shooting is carried on, 
encouraged by the landlords, whose interest it is to get up 
competitions for the custom they draw to their houses. 
There is a great difference of opinion between the public 
generally and those interested in the results as to the utility 
and humanity of this sport; but there is no doubt, in the 
first place, of its popularity, and in the second of the 
excellent shooting sometimes shown by its followers. The 
birds employed are blue rocks, quick and steady flyers, of 
which thousands upon thousands are destroyed during every 
season. For each competitor a pigeon is placed in a shallow 
box, provided with a movable lid worked by a string, 
which is put a certain number of yards from the shooters — 
that is to say, from " scratch ; " for, in the case of handicaps, 
every member is stationed in the position to which, by his 
past performances, he is, in the judgment of the handi- 
capper, entitled. At a given signal the string is drawn, and 
the lid of the box consequently raised, by a person appointed 
for the purpose, and the shooter, lifting his gun to his 
shoulder, when his prey is on the wing, discharges it. The 
bird must fall within a certain boundary, the extent of which 
is settled beforehand ; otherwise it is considered lost, and 

u 2 



324 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

the shat counts as a miss. The result, of course, is in favour 
of that competitor who has killed the largest number of 
pigeons in the smallest number of shots. 

The files of the sporting papers would, if carefully 
searched, furnish many evidences of the skill of English 
sportsman ; but it is unnecessary to do more than refer to a 
case of exceptional excellence. The brothers Richard and 
Kdward Toomer reduced shooting with gun and pistol so 
much to a science that numbers of gentlemen became their 
pupils, and received instruction from them. Richard, at a 
cricket match near Hardford Bridge, Hants, his gun being 
loaded with shot, twelve times struck a cricket ball thrown 
by Harris, one of the sharpest bowlers in England. On 
another occasion, at Moyles Court, near Kingwood, he 
made a trifling bet with Mr. Mist that he would kill more 
birds with his rifle and single ball than the other did with 
his fowling-piece and shot. In twenty shots Toomer killed 
every time, and Mr. Mist nineteen, and on the latter 
expressing his surprise, and observing that as the trees were 
very lofty, his opponent's eyesight must be of superior 
quality, Toomer replied, " I will convince you, my friend, 
there is not such wonderful eyesight required, and that what 
you have seen is not so difficult as you imagine." Selecting 
a rook, and levelling his rifle, he desired Mr. Mist to tie a 
handkerchief round his eyes, so that he was in perfect dark- 
ness. This being done, he fired and brought down his bird, 
and, reloading, repeated the feat with the same result, to the 
astonishment of many spectators.* 

As to the use of the pistol, the mountains of the Cauca- 
sus, and particularly of Daghestan, which was the theatre 
of the great feats of Schamyl, nourish many excellent marks- 
* Blaine's " Rural Sports." 



THE MUSKET AND PISTOL. 325 

men. A Russian poem, by Bestoujiff— " Ammalat Bey," 
the scene of which is laid in the Caucasus — speaks of the 
hero who, while galloping at a terrific rate, suddenly seized 
his pistol and struck the iron shoe off his horse at the 
moment when it raised its hind leg. The servant who 
accompanied the prince re-charged the arm, and running 
on in front, threw a piece of silver into the air ; the horse 
at the moment fell, but the shot was fired nevertheless, and 
the coin was struck. 

This test of a piece of silver thrown into the air and 
struck by a pistol-shot is the touchstone of marksmen. It 
has often been reproduced under different forms. An 
Englishman is mentioned, who, thirty- two times out of forty 
struck a piece of ten centimes thrown up into the air. We 
read in M. Houdinot's book, the story of an amateur who, 
being present when a feat of this kind was performed with 
a five-franc silver piece, did not speak a word during the 
performance. Then, all at once, he said, " My means do 
not permit me so much luxury ; but here is a piece of 
twenty sous." He threw it in the air, fired, and it fell down 
only a ring of silver, so skilfully had it been pierced. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE JAVELIN. 

The Lance in Persia, in Turkey, and in Arabia— Ancient Exercises of 
the Turks — Throwing the Javelin as practised among the Greeks — 
Achilles and Hector — The ptlum of the Romans — Commodus and 
the Moors — The Ancient Shield. 

The throwing of the javelin, which is accomplished by the 
hand alone, without the employment of any propelling 
instrument, is an accomplishment for which many nations, 
both in antiquity and in modern times, have been distin- 
guished. The Orientals have been renowned for many 
centuries for throwing the djerid^a. dart like a long reed, 
very slender, and made of hard wood. While riding slowly 
along they hold this weapon, which is ornamented with 
festoons and tassels, in a perpendicular position at their 
sides, but when they break into the gallop they brandish it 
above their heads, and after, like the slingers, obtaining a 
purchase by swinging it round, they throw it forward with all 
their force. At the same moment they urge on their steeds 
to their utmost speed in pursuit of the flying spear, and such 
is their expertness and the swiftness of their horses that they 
reach it as it darts through the air, and catch it before it falls 
to the ground. In performing this marvel of expertness, 
they certainly require to stoop, often almost to the ground, 
but they never leave the saddle. The djerid might be used 
as an offensive arm, but it is very seldom employed in war- 
fare, and figures chiefly in jousts and sham fights. The 



THE JAVELIN. 327 

" game of the djerid," in short, is the favourite pastime of 
the Persians, the Arabs, and the Turks, and is all the more 
enjoyed by them because it is also an equestrian exercise, 
and affords them an opportunity of displaying at once their 
skill in throwing the lance and in horsemanship. When 
it is carried on those who take part in it are divided into 
two parties ; sometimes they are separated by a barrier, 
but generally the field is left open to permit of the un- 
restrained movements of the horses. The numbers on each 
side generally range from about twelve to fifteen, and they 
charge each other with apparently all the earnestness of a 
serious encounter. The men seem fired with the passion 
of actual warfare, and the lances that fly thick in the air, the 
turbans that rise and fall, and mingle together as in a dance, 
the swift flying horses, the cries of the cavaliers as they pass 
and repass, some of them bending beneath their horses to 
catch the falling lance, others rising in their stirrups to dis- 
charge it anew, form a scene singularly striking and strange. 
They can seize the javelins without alighting from their 
horses ; while at full speed they can throw themselves under 
their horses and rise in a moment with the weapons in their 
hands, and some are so skilful that they can catch with- 
out an effort the weapon of their opponents. Chardin, the 
celebrated traveller of the seventeenth century, beheld 
these sports in several parts of Persia. " Among the noble- 
men,^ says he, speaking of one of these jousts at which he 
was present, " there were fifteen young Abyssinians who 
were conspicuous for their skill in throwing the dart and 
javelin, for their splendid horsemanship, and for the swift- 
ness of their movements. They never required to dismount 
or pull up their horses in order to pick up their weapons, 
but while careering at full speed threw themselves over the 



328 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

sides of the animals and picked up the falling darts with a 
dexterity and a grace that delighted all who witnessed the 
scene. 

Niebuhr, who visited Arabia about the end of last 
century, speaks in the highest terms of the skill of the 
Emir of Lohei'a, who, at full gallop, was able to overtake 
the djerid, and to catch it up before it had reached the sand. 
The traveller adds, however, that the Arabs are not so fond 
of this game as the Turks, or even the Persians. 

In former times the Turks always carried three of these 
lances placed in a sheath on the right side of their horses, 
and from their earliest youth trained themselves by continual 
and varied practice in throwing the djerid. While still chil- 
dren, an iron javelin, very much heavier than the ordinary 
weapon, was placed in their hands, and a spot of soft earth 
was assigned them as a target ; thus they were introduced 
to arduous practice at once. In throwing the iron spear 
they rested the left hand upon the belt, and stood with 
their feet in line, the one behind the other. After their 
arms had become accustomed to this weight they were 
armed with a javelin of wood, much lighter than the iron 
one, but still much heavier than the ordinary djerid. This 
lance they were obliged, according to one authority (Gueri, 
" Mceurs et Usages des Turks," Paris, 1746), to throw and 
stick in the ground two thousand times in succession. This 
training was supposed generally to be sufficient to qualify 
them for the weapon they were really to use, and after they 
had gone through these two probationary stages success- 
fully, the djerid was put into their hands, and it no doubt 
appeared to them as light as a feather in comparison with 
the lances they had been in the habit of using. Every 
Friday, on issuing from the mosque, the grandees of the 



THE JAVELIN. 



329 



court assembled in a great square in the seraglio to throw 
the djerid, and on these occasions sometimes a thousand 
horsemen took part in the game. The Sultan himself used 
to mingle amongst them, and if he had the misfortune to 
wound any one he compensated the sufferer by a donation 
in money, which was given by his treasurer, who always 




Exercise with the Javelin, (From a painted vase in the Louvre.) 



accompanied him on these occasions. Sometimes the purse 
contained five hundred crowns, but the amount depended a 
good deal upon whether His Serene Highness was in a 
good or a bad temper. 

The practice of throwing the lance dates from very 
ancient times. The Greek language abounds to such an 
extent in names for the various kinds of lances or spears 
that we are unable to distinguish precisely between the 
different varieties. The javelin was the same sort of weapon 
as the lance, if it was not that identical weapon. The 



330 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

throwing of this projectile — which was an arm as well as an 
instrument of amusement — formed part of the military edu- 
cation, and the young men were trained in its use for a 
greater length of time and much more thoroughly than in 
any other exercise. Their arms, already strengthened by 
practice in throwing the ball and the quoit, derived from 




Etruscan Preparing to Hurl his Javelin. (From a fcmb at Chiusi.) 

the practice a muscular power which showed itself on the 
day of combat both in attack and defence. The casting of f 
the javelin had a beneficial influence upon the upper parts 
of the body by developing the thorax and the respiratory 
organs. For this reason it took its place in medical gym- 
nastics, like quoit throwing, which was recommended by 
physicians as of great benefit to men of plethoric tempera- 
ment, and to those subject to giddiness. The attitude of 
the body, the movement of the arms and shoulders, and the 



THE JAVELIN. 



331 



position of the head were not the same in throwing the 
javelin as in throwing the quoit. The athlete who held by 
the former exercise kept his body straight, with his right 
shoulder bent a little behind to allow of the arm being 
raised aloft, the eye fixed on the object aimed at, the left 
arm hanging free or bent at the most obtuse angle, the legs 
placed as in quoit throwing, the left foot generally in front, 
the right planted in the rear, and rising lightly when the 
weapon was hurled. The hand, raised to the height of the 




Thessalian Horseman and Foot Soldier 

Armed with Javelins. (From 

an ancient coin.) 




Throwing the Javelin. 
(From an ancient coin.) 



right ear, held the javelin horizontally, and gave it a double 
revolving motion before it was thrown. To assist these 
movements, which rendered the hand flexible, and doubled 
the force of impulsion, the handle of the javelin, especially 
in the case of that employed in war, was furnished with a 
leather strap, which the Romans called amentum. Some 
hold that this apparatus not only increased the force with 
which the weapon was thrown, but gave a greater degree of 
precision. 

As a weapon of offence the javelin was used in three 
ways. It was discharged by means of catapults or other 
machines of war ; it was employed as a pike or lance — with 
it, according to Homer, Achilles killed Hector under the 



332 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL. 

walls of Troy, the Trojan hero being stabbed in the neck — 
and it was thrown with the hand as a dart. The warriors 
who made use of it in this way went to the field armed with 
two javelins, on the prudent principle of having two strings 
to one's bow. Homer's heroes never began battle without 
observing this precaution. When they had selected their 
adversary, they discharged at him either a single spear, or 
both, one after the other, and it was only then that they 
came together and engaged hand to hand in the struggle 
with the sword. 

Examination of ancient monuments enable us to un- 
derstand better the difference between the Greek javelin 
and the Roman pilum or spear. The latter was very strong 
and thick, and, like the former, it was used both as a pro- 
jectile and as a stabbing weapon. It was made of dog- 
berry- tree wood, was between seven and eight feet long, and 
was furnished with an iron head half the length of the entire 
weapon, the socket into which the shaft was inserted 
reaching half way along it. We have spoken of the exploits 
that have been achieved in throwing the javelin, when 
referring to the skill of the Emperor Commodus. The 
people of Mauritania were famous for their skill in this art, 
and they were the instructors of the Romans under the 
Empire. The tutors of Commodus belonged to this nation, 
but the pupil surpassed his teachers. The Cadusians or 
Geles, a people of Media, were counted, after the Moors, 
the most adroit throwers of the dart. 

The ancient warrior, however skilled in the use of the 
javelin, had only mastered one half of his profession ; for 
the management of the shield was quite as important as the 
command of the weapon of offence, and the fate of the 
combatant depended in great part upon his manner of 



THE JAVELIN. 333 

holding the shield. When the dart came from the hand of 
an Achilles, an Ajax, or a Hector, it was very difficult to 
ward it off, though the warrior could evade the danger that 
threatened him by leaping on one side when it came straight 
upon him, by bending down and holding his shield high 
above him when it descended on him from a height, and 
generally protecting himself by the help of this movable 
rampart, held at a distance from the body, so that if the 
dart pierced the buckler it should not penetrate to the 
body armour. It was in this last attitude that the comba- 
tants marched against the enemy. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE BOOMERANG. 

Description of the Instrument — The Natives alone know how to use it 
— Inexpertness of the Europeans — Different Modes of throwing it 
— Its singular properties* 

The people of Africa and Oceania still use the javelin as 
well as the bow; "but of all the projectiles employed by 
savages the most curious is the boomerang, a sort of club 
bent at almost a right angle, smooth on one side, slightly 
hollowed on the other. It is necessary that it should be 
made of a single piece of wood, in order not to get out of 
the form upon which its wonderful properties depend. At 
first sight, and without examining it closely, one would say 
it was a sword of wood rudely and unskilfully shaped. 
The first Australian explorers were deceived, but their error 
was pardonable, for the boomerang, though a weapon of 
war, is also equally used in hunting. 

The specially interesting and original feature of the 
boomerang is that when thrown by the natives it describes 
the most extraordinary curves, and performs the most unac- 
countable evolutions. " When thrown by the natives," we 
say, for, whether from ignorance of the principle of the 
boomerang, or from want of skill, Europeans have never 
been able to use it. Thrown by strangers it flies and falls 
like any ordinary piece of wood. 

In hurling this curious weapon the native takes it in the 
right hand by a species of handle into which one of the two 



THE BOOMERANG. 335 

branches is fashioned, and throws it either into the air at 
some distance above the ground, as one might throw, for 
example, a reaping-hook, or upon the ground, like a pair of 
compasses with the legs extended, which a school-boy might 
throw to the distance of some paces from him out of spite. 
In the latter case the projectile strikes the ground at a little 
distance from where the thrower stands, but, owing to its 




Australian Throwing the Boomerang. (After Commodore Wilkes.) 

bent form, and the elasticity which it gives, it rebounds 
immediately, and continues to rebound in successive ri- 
cochets, with a force which is most destructive to any body, 
organic or inorganic, that happens to lie in its course. 
Thrown thus among a flock of wild ducks, the boomerang 
commits the greatest havoc, striking many of the fowls, and 
killing wherever it strikes. The other mode of using the 
boomerang, much more curious, but at the same time more 
practicable than that described, consists in hurling the 
weapon at an object standing sometimes at a great distance. 



33*> WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL, 

The thrower waits calmly till the boomerang, having accom* 
plished its work of destruction, returns, describing an ellipse, 
and falls at the spot (or at the most a few paces from it) 
from which it was discharged. 

Very few boomerangs have been brought to Europe, 
and, indeed, very many people are in ignorance of the 
existence of the weapon. When it becomes better known, 
when men of science will have examined it with intelligent 
care, perhaps some means of applying it usefully will be 




The Boomerang describing its Ellipse. 

found* The case of the boomerang proves clearly that the 
most simple laws of nature have not, even among civilised 
nations, been sufficiently utilised. And it is not flatter- 
ing to our amour-propre that this lesson in mechanics comes 
to us from Australia, from a country the inhabitants of 
which are among the least civilised and the least capable 
of civilisation. One is perfectly non-plussed in attempting 
to explain how savage tribes, utterly ignorant of physics and 
the laws of dynamics, could have conceived the idea of an 
instrument at once so ingenious and so simple. It was 
no doubt chance that first made them acquainted with the 
properties of a piece of wood thus shaped ; and one can 
imagine how, in the chase, an Australian, having in his 



THE BOOMERANG 337 

hand a curved stick, and throwing it against the wild fowl, 
was astonished to see it come back to his side; how, 
being a keen observer, the strange fact made a deep impres- 
sion upon him ; and how, after endless trials, he came to 
a satisfactory result, and fashioned another instrument like 
the one chance had put into his hands. 

However this may be, the natives use this instrument 
with extraordinary skill, and travellers recount incredible 
feats performed by them. Thus, a native throws his boom- 
erang with his right hand, and catches it again with his left, 
and vice versd. They hit unerringly objects concealed by 
other bodies — strike down, for example, birds or other 
small animals hidden behind trees or houses. Nearer 
objects they also hit by a back-stroke. The perfection of 
skill is to strike the enemy with a double boomerang — that 
is, with one discharged with the right and another sent 
by the left hand. The unhappy man who serves as target 
thus finds himself between two fires, or rather between two 
clubs, which, after describing eccentric courses, both in- 
fallibly strike him, unless he is sufficiently skilful to escape 
by a ruse, or is possessed of a shield of a particular shape, 
behind which he may shelter himself. 

It is possible to calculate mathematically the curve 
which the boomerang describes. Commodore Wilkes, who 
commanded the celebrated scientific expedition of the 
United States round the World, made experiments with 
this instrument, and has traced the curves described by it 
when discharged at the angles of 2 2°, 45 °, and 65 . The 
most singular movement is that which is performed when 
the weapon is thrown at the angle of 45 °. Its flight is 
then effected from behind — the thrower turning his back to 
the object which he wishes to strike. 



338 WONDERS OF BODILY STRENGTH AND SKILL 

But by virtue of what principle is the phenomenon ac- 
complished? Travellers who have visited Australia, either 
do not try to investigate the cause, or give an insufficient 
explanation, or plainly say that the thing is incomprehen- 
sible. Willingly would they leave it alone as a prodigy; 
but in these scientific days prodigies are no longer the 
fashion. In the first place, how comes it that the boom- 
erang does not follow the straight line like other bodies 
thrown in the same manner? Its particular form is the 
cause, and as the straight line in which the force of pro- 
jection tends to drive it does not pass through the centre 
of gravity — which lies outside the mass, a little nearer the 
longer than the shorter leg of this unequal pair of compasses 
• — the instrument rotates continuously around the centre of 
gravity. The force of this movement is so great, that it 
diminishes but little before the weapon falls. The boome- 
rang, by means of its level surface, easily cuts the air which 
sustains it, and, so to speak, carries it. For example, if 
the weapon is thrown with a slightly upward tendency, it 
mounts considerably upwards, a phenomenon which, per- 
haps, has led to several travellers believing that the natives 
always throw it higher, whereas they project it only a slight 
distance above, and indeed sometimes close to the earth. 
In any case, it is by the influence of the air that the upward 
movement is caused; but, on the other hand, centrifugal 
force exercises its influence, and tends to sweep the mass 
round in an orbit. This makes the boomerang describe an 
ellipse, which attains its maximum of curve when the move- 
ment is arrested by the resistance of the air. 







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